


Thorns and Roses

by Gingervivi



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, Florist AU, Huddling For Warmth, Mordern AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-23
Updated: 2017-08-02
Packaged: 2018-05-02 23:36:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 30,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5268137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gingervivi/pseuds/Gingervivi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's just the small town of Haven, but things start to change when Cullen Rutherford moves into town as the new sheriff and a local flower shop is robbed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Flowers Don't Last Long in Winter

**Author's Note:**

> For the most part, I'm going to try and make this a regularly updated fic that I post a new chapter to every Sunday. I've been pushing myself to writer bigger, and bigger works and actually finish them so comments and kudos really help me knowing people are enjoying what I'm writing.

Rona scrambled to the landline, hands shaking as she dialed for help. She looked out at her shop, the shards of glass covering the floor as if it was attempting to beat her over the head that she was robbed. Her flowers were crushed and broken, tossed about without a care, but she had no idea why. What would be the point of destroying her livelihood?

Finally, there was an voice on the line. "9-1-1, what's your emergency?"

"My store has been broken into!" she tried to say, though it came out mostly in a sob. Her money was stolen, her flowers were beyond salvaging, and she had a gigantic hole in the front of her shop. Reporting the rest to the operator passed by quickly. At least, it seemed quick. 

"We've dispatched an officer to the scene. Please stay where you are."

Hanging up the phone, she went to the back room and grabbed the blanket in her office. Even with her sweater, jacket, and two pairs of socks, the winter air was frigid. She let out another sob when she walked back into the main room of the flower shop, seeing the scene again. Could she recover from this? Would her insurance help her? 

Rona took a seat behind the counter, pulling the blanket around her tightly. The air was so cold she could see her breath. With each blinding pass of light of headlights, her eyes looked out at the street, wondering if any passing car was her robber or, more likely, the local sheriff. It only took ten minutes for him to arrive, and when he did, he knocked on the door.

"C-come in," she called out, unable to stop shivering. The door's bell gave an uncharacteristically cheery jingle for the circumstances, not that she expected it to sound as hopeless as she felt. The man who entered wore a fur collared jacket and jeans, not at all like the sheriff she expected to see. Though seeing his blond hair, curly and untamed, and the tired look her wore, she figured he must have been woken up for this.

"Are you alright?" the sheriff asked first and Rona sat there, looking up at him if not a little confused. That was not the first thing she expected to be asked, standing in a drafty flower shop at two in the morning. Then again, she hadn't been expecting much at all. Part of her pictured this playing out like a scene in those movies where the cops just ask questions, uninterested in what had happened before leaving to grab a doughnut and complain about the rampant crime these days. But that was a movie and this was the small town of Haven that probably only had a few thefts a year and some teenage vandalism during Halloween. A break in like this would probably end up in the local newspaper.

"I wasn't here during the robbery, if that's what you're asking," she explained. He just offered a small smile and leaned against the counter as he pulled out a pad of paper and pen from the inside of his jacket. 

"These sorts of ordeals can be very stressful and I know there must be a million questions on your mind, but if you feel you're well enough we can just go ahead and start." He looked at her, waiting for some kind of answer. When he didn't get it, he went on. "I'm Sheriff Cullen Rutherford, by the way."

\---

If there was any time of the year for a flower shop to hit financial hardship, it might as well be in the Winter. Everyone liked to set up flower arrangements for those family meals in the holidays, and Rona was thankful that not everyone had the time to do those arrangements themselves. Sure, there was weddings in the Summer, but in a small town like Haven, there weren't as many wedding as she would've liked. Sure, Ori was having her wedding in a few days, but she got the friends and family discount. 

Purple roses, orange lilies, yellow daisy poms, and narcissus flowers, all strategically placed in a tall white vase. This arrangement had been rather fun, taking her mind off finances even if for a moment. The caller had asked for something fun to look at for an workplace setting to liven up the place, something she might have expected more from a female customer than a man, but she hadn't questioned it. Only seconds passed from when she finished the arrangement had the customer came in.

"This looks great," he said. She didn't recognize him at all. Was he new to town? Certainly he wasn't just passing through, not with having given her several hours before the pick up. "I think I'll know just where to put it."

"I'm glad," Rona replied as he handed her cash for the flowers. With any luck, she'll be able to make rent this month. "Have a nice day."

He carefully picked up the vase and gave her a nod. "You too."

\---

"Rona Lavellan," she replied and took a deep breath. I can do this, she told herself. The next half hour went rather quickly. Reciting what happened was odd to put into words. She was returning from a friend's wedding that was about an hour out of town and planned to do some work before she went to bed and had left a few needed papers in her office. When she stopped by to pick them up when she noticed everything broken, trampled, and missing. Cullen would ask his questions and she'd give her best answer, though afraid it wouldn't be enough to catch whoever did this.

"Come on, let's get you somewhere warmer," he said as he closed the little notebook he had written everything she said in. 

"I was just planning on going home and falling asleep," Rona admitted. Fall asleep and sleep for twelve hours probably. Would her insurance call her once the report was filed or would she have to reach out to them? Nothing like this had ever happened to her before and she had absolutely no idea how to go about it.

"Well, there's that too. But there is a warm diner a block from here, if you didn't know. They serve great pie." Okay, now that made her smile a bit.

"I do work here, you know," Rona said as she shrugged off the blanket, letting it fall to the floor. The place was already a mess, who would care about a misplaced blanket. Wait, she'd probably be the one to clean it up later. Quickly, she scooped it up and folded it to place on the counter. "But yeah, some comfort food sounds really good right now."

"Plus, it might not be the best idea to drive right away. You're cold, probably hungry, and this can't have been easy for you. Not to mention a nice cup of coffee will keep you awake for a drive home at two a.m."

Rona nodded absently. With that in mind, it seemed like a bad idea not to go take a moment for herself at the diner. "Are you coming with?" she asked as he followed behind her.

"Yes, I still have a few questions left, but nothing we can't do somewhere you're not freezing."

She gave him a thankful smile, quick but hard to miss. "I appreciate it."

Just before they were out of the door, he gently touched her shoulder and she turned around. "Before I forget, you have security cameras, right?"

She nodded. "I do. I'll get you the tapes. Just a moment." She ran back to her office for the tapes. This was a flower shop, not a jewelry store, so she didn't have a high tech security system or guards to watch it at night. If anything, she was surprised her store was even broken into. It wasn't like she had a whole lot to steal.

With the security footage put on a flash drive, she left and locked the office before rejoining the sheriff and handing it to him. 

"Thank you. Now, let's see if they still have any apple pie left."


	2. Night Sky and Pie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nothing like the local diner to discuss a robbery. The food helps.

Turns out, they barely had any pie left, much less apple. Upon hearing Rona's situation, the cook in the back just quickly cooked up some apples and cinnamon, tossing a scoop of ice cream on it as well. It certainly satisfied her sweet tooth and for just a moment she forgot why she was at the diner way too early in the morning until the man across from her asked a question.

"Is there anyone you can think of who would do this to you?" Sheriff Rutherford asked, his hands folded around a steaming coffee cup. 

Rona bit down on her lip, looking down at her dish. The ice cream had started to turn soupy about five minutes ago, but she didn't mind. What did bother her was the question. She didn't want to lie and say that there was no one she could think of that might break into her shop and steal her stuff, but she just knew it couldn't be who she was thinking of. 

"You don't think this is just a break in?" she asked instead of answering his question. 

"I'll have to look at the tapes first, but... it's possible it's just something a little more," he admitted, his brows drawn together and his hand to his chin. 

"It's just a flower shop!" Rona exclaimed and quickly quieted herself, sinking into her seat. "I barely make enough money to pay the bills some days, I'm not a big target." She ran a hand through her hair and sighed.

"The way I see it, there's a few different possibilities. Either someone purposefully targeted you, knowing you can't recover from this sort of theft, or that they're searching for something and stealing the money was to cover up what they're looking for." His thoughtful expression turned a tad bashful at the sight of her skepticism.

"It sounds like you haven't lived in Haven for very long," she commented, taking up the spoon in place of a fork for the dessert. 

"Just a few months, but that's besides the point. Most thieves go straight for the cash. Why bother with tossing your flowers everywhere unless they were searching for something?" 

"You do realize that means either I or someone else put something in my flowers to hide? And if that's the case then why not just come during open hours?" she asked and finished off the last of her food. As the waitress passed by, "A refill on the coffee please."

The waitress nodded and returned with the coffee pot to refill her cup when Cullen said, "I'll take a refill as well." Once the waitress left, he continued. "Like I said earlier, I'll know a little more when I watch the tapes, but you actually never answered my question. Is there anyone you think who might have cause to do this?"

Damn it. She thought he had forgotten. "There might be someone, but I really, really doubt it'd be her. It's just not what she does."

"Who?" He sat up taller in his seat, tapping his pen against the pad of paper in a way she recognized as too much caffeine. 

"She's younger than me and we don't necessarily agree on a lot and we're friends on some levels, but she isn't... how can I put this? The most reputable?" Rona took a long sip of her coffee - _ouch, it's hot,_ but she kept drinking so she wouldn't have to explain just yet - and watched him look more confused as the seconds passed. "Her name is Sera, and she's really a nice kid. I can't imagine her doing something like this and especially not to me."

"I'm more confused what you mean by 'not reputable'," Cullen explained, brows still furrowed.

"Ah, that's a little tricky to explain. She does it better but... not by much." Rona shook her head. "Says something about having friends and favors she can call in, but I only know her as the summer camp director."

"Did she come by your shop this week?" he asked.

"Yeah, several times. She'll stop by with lunch or cookies and we'll talk, sometimes argue."

"You... argue? Anything serious?"

"No! You know, like politics? I mean, we try to avoid subjects like that but sometimes it's unavoidable." She put down her coffee and loosely held on to the handle. "Like I said, she's actually really nice. She wouldn't do this to me."

"Alright. Anyone else?" Rona partially figured he was entertaining her, that he might not totally believe her and she reluctantly realized that it was probably for the best. Haven was her home and her first thought had been someone out of town breaking in and running off rather than anyone here having done it. 

"No. Like I said, it's a small town. Everyone here generally looks out for each other. Even the bounty hunter is a nice guy-"

"Bounty hunter?" From the way he sounded, she suspected that Bull was waiting for the new sheriff to settle in before trying to introduce himself. 

Rona felt a corner of her lips turn up into a smirk. "Yeah, but he's also a really nice guy. Calls himself the Iron Bull. Says he lives here because it's cheap, but he spends a lot of his time out of town for work. Every so often he'll stop buy and buy flowers. Actually, he buys a lot of flowers."

"You really don't think bad of anyone, do you?" His tone was more curious than judgmental.

"Oh, I'm thinking some pretty bad things about those robbers right now, but I don't think I have the energy to go off on a tangent. Probably tomorrow," she said, waving her hand. 

"Ah, then I bet that's our cue to both head home." He pulled out a five and ten dollar bill and tossed them on the table, waving a goodbye to the waitress. "I parked by your shop so let me walk you to your car."

"But- wait, no, you don't need to pay for this-" Rona said as she stood up, but he cut her off.

"It's alright. It was my suggestion to come here and I feel like you just needed a pick-me-up tonight. It's no big deal, I promise."

She puffed up her cheeks, trying to think of some reply, but the truth was any money she did have was probably going to go to making up what she lost, even with her insurance helping out. She simply couldn't afford to argue and pay. "Thank you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is appreciated! Also I've changed my tumblr url so if you want to follow for updates or ask me questions, it's now jedi-gingervora @ tumblr


	3. Wake Up and Smell the Roses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Somehow unexpected revelations.

u g h can u believe this shite  
got called 2 the station!!  
pick me up for lunch  
-seraaa

Sleep eluded Rona that night despite her best efforts. She would blame the caffeine but knowing herself, it was more likely that she was still shaken up over the whole ordeal. Her shop, her livelihood, robbed. Sera's text simply prompted her to get out of bed, rather than spend another hour completely covered in blankets and crying into her pillow into the afternoon. 

With just enough makeup to hide the bags under eyes, Rona pulled on a black t-shirt, jeans, and her red winter jacket. The moment she walked out of her home, the wind rushing in, she promptly slammed the door shut and put on extra socks, a hat, and the fluffiest scarf she had. Seemed like today was going to be even colder than one before.

Ice covered the roads, but enough snow was piled on top of it for traction not to pull out the chains for the drive to the station. Most notably was the cleared sidewalk, not a speck of snow from the parking lot to the front doors. When she entered, the first thing she noticed was the orange, white, and purple flower arrangement she had put together days ago sitting on the counter. The second was Sera's prolonged laugh.

"You think I did what?" Rona heard her friend laugh a second time. "Balls, no! If I was going to case out some joint, it'd be a place with a hell of lot more coin and a less spiteful owner."

"Spiteful?" Cullen echoed and Rona felt her face heat up to the tips of her ears. 

" _Sera._ "

"Ronaly!" Sera jumped out of her chair to briefly hug her. "Can you believe it, this fella thinks I robbed you. As if!" 

"I-" Cullen looked from Rona back to Sera, standing up slightly from his chair from when she entered but sitting back down. Sera looked as relaxed as one could be in a police station, laying back in the chair and her feet resting on the sheriff's desk. "I did not accuse her of robbing you. I merely asked if she knew any reason someone would want to rob your store."

"Did you not find anything on the tapes?" Rona inquired as she took off her hat and scarf. 

"Haha, I asked him that as well but he won't answer it," Sera piped in, looking at Rona like a cat that caught a mouse.

"I can't talk about what I did or didn't find," he tiredly explained, hand propping up his head. "Miss Lavellan, was there anything you needed?"

"Ah, no, I actually came for Sera. Apparently she wants lunch after this." Sera gave a winning grin.

"I would really suggest not staying, but I will not force you to leave, either."

"What? You've got more questions?" Sera sounded more agitated than tired of questions. 

Cullen's eyes briefly flickered to Rona but quickly focused back on Sera. "What did you hide in the sunflowers at the Enchanted Garden?" 

Ready for Sera to laugh again or make some sort of noise in dismissal, to Rona's surprise Sera just blanked at the question. Looking to Cullen, she couldn't read him except for that tired look she noticed last night. Did the tapes have Sera putting something in the sunflowers? Rona resisted the urge to step between them and proclaim Sera's innocence but one thing stopped her: that sounded exactly like something she would do. 

"Sera, were you using my shop as a drop site?" she asked instead, noticing Cullen from the corner of her eye regarding her cautiously. 

Sera slumped in her chair like a child being scolded, obviously not happy to answer the question in front of the sheriff. "Yeaaahh, but only sometimes, I swear! It's just, like, way easier than going out to a park and leaving a stupid paper bag somewhere."

"I feel like I'm missing something here, and I would really appreciate it if it was explained," Cullen interjected.

"She- ugh, no I can't even begin to remember how it works. Sera, explain it to him." Sera looked up at Rona but she looked away. If Sera caused this... No, she wasn't going to deal with that thought now. 

"Fine. Whatever. The deal is, some people need help and people generally like being paid for that help. Sometimes I pass on information of people that need help or people pass on money to those that helped them and I put that stuff places for those people to find it. Or sometimes I do the shite and keep it for myself, ya' feel?" the younger woman explained as monotonously as she could, obviously not very happy.

"Wait, so you're in some kind of... paid vigilante group?" Cullen summarized.

"However you wanna phrase it, we help people, yeah?" Sera huffed and stood up, grabbing her coat and other belongings, very obviously ready to leave. "If it'll help my friend, I left a thumb drive in the sunflowers. It had information on how to get into the, uh, what'cha'm'callit, town hall?"

"Why would one of your people want into the town hall?"

Sera let out a soft groan. "Hell if I know. Information, if I had to guess. One person helps another to help another. How many times can _you _say that, Flufferstuff?"__

__"Flufferstuff?" he echoed, making no effort to stop her or ask any other questions. Perhaps he had all he needed._ _

__"She nicknames people."_ _

__"But why Flufferstuff?"_ _

__"Your coat _is_ very fluffy," Rona said._ _

__"She only called you 'Ronaly'," Cullen pointed out._ _

__"That's when she's glad to see me."_ _

__"Right now she's Puffyface," Sera said just before she left, slamming the door with a loud thunk._ _

__Cullen looked at Rona for an explanation but she shook her head. "It's a long story, one I'm too tired to tell."_ _

__"Did you not get enough sleep last night?" He shifted in his seat, looking much more open with her than he was with Sera in the room. Professionalism, she concluded. He was asking questions of Sera, but he was trying to be nice to her since she was the victim in all of this. That made sense._ _

__"Not as much as I wanted," she replied dismissively and took the seat Sera had been sitting in earlier. "I saw the flowers on my way in. If I had known you were our new sheriff, I would've gone with a different combination."_ _

__Cullen shook his head. "Would my profession really have changed which flowers you picked?"_ _

__She considered it for a moment. "Less roses. More red. I envisioned an domestic office when I made it, not the Sheriff's office."_ _

__"I like it the way it is," he said with a soft smile. "I certainly will have to purchase more in the future."_ _

__Rona laughed at the thought of this building filled with flowers. "If I'm still in business," she confessed._ _

__"I am going to try and bring in those that did this," Cullen reassured her. Something about him made her want to believe him, but her chances of pulling through this were slim._ _

__"I simply can't believe that Sera..." Rona trailed off with a shake of her head and ran her hands through her hair. "No, I think the worst part is that I can believe it. She's not going to get in trouble, is she?"_ _

__Cullen sighed and sat up in his seat. "She was very forthcoming with information and I'm not about to start a crusade on her and her... group, but if I find out she has been holding back any valuable information, I don't see any way around it."_ _

__"I don't think she is. She's careful about this sort of stuff. Besides, this wouldn't be something done by her friends, so she'd have no one to cover for." Rona stood up. "Well, seeing as Sera ran off on her own, I suppose I'll just head back to my shop. Glass doesn't sweep itself."_ _

__Cullen followed in step, taking a stand from his chair and walking her to the door. "I will see you later, then."_ _

__She paused and looked up at him. "Will I, now?"_ _

__"Ah, well, it is a small town."_ _

__She smiled as a reply and walked out into the snowy air._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I started a tag on my blog (jedi-gingervora @ tumblr) for all my Thorns and Roses excerpts, musings, and frustrations. Quite simply, it's "thorns and roses blogging". And I swear I must've gone into a sugar induced coma last night with all the sweet comments I've been getting lately. <3 Thanks for reading!


	4. Potpourri and More

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Josephine is as generous as ever.

Cleaning her shop didn't compare to doing it in the cold, the snow and cold air flowing in through the broken window. In hindsight, Rona should have cleaned it or put something up to keep out the weather the moment she found it, but the past was the past. Next time someone broke into her shop, she'd know what to do first. Hopefully, no one else would break into her flower shop.

Rona heard the bell of the front door ring before she saw the Mayor coming through the glass door, wearing a blue and gold suit and skirt duo and a leather purse hanging off her arm. 

"Josephine!" Rona greeted, setting her broom aside and meeting the woman half way for a hug. In all of this, it was great to see a friendly face. Well, one that she knew and hadn't run off on her.

"Goodness me, I came just as soon as I heard it happened. I cannot believe anyone would break into your shop, it's just absurd!" Josephine fretted, one hand holding onto the strap of her purse and the other one held up to her face. "I can send someone to fix the window right away."

Rona shook her head with a smile. "That's a generous offer, but I'm not sure I can take you up on it."

"Why ever not?" Josephine looked angry, hands on her her hips, but Rona knew that the mayor was just confused why she wasn't taking her up on the help.

"You shouldn't be showing favoritism to anyone. How would it look like to others if you patched up my shop but not others?" Rona sighed. "Besides, if I can't keep my own business afloat, it might just be a sign I should pack up and try something else."

"Nonsense! I'm getting your window replaced and it’s coming from my personal funds, not the city's. I will not lose the nearest source of flowers for my office, nor will I lose a good friend." 

"When you say it that way, I suppose I can't refuse."

"You absolutely cannot," Josephine said with a wink and a smile. "But to start, I will take some of these flowers." She moved towards the mess of flowers on the floor, near their respective canisters, picking up a handful of trampled tulips. 

"Josephine, they're worthless. I've got another shipment coming in soon, if you'll just wait-"

"These will be perfect for pressing into some books or some homemade potpourri, yes? Actually, that is a great idea! Rona, why don't you make some potpourri? Surely you could recover some of your losses that way."

She shrugged, looking at the half frozen, half wilted flowers on her tiled floor. "I suppose I could take some money to buy the rest of what I'd need for potpourri, but who needs this much potpourri?" 

Josephine tapped at her chin. "We could treat it like a fundraising event. Help a local store get through a tragic robbery. I have little doubt people wouldn't come to support you. Haven has proven time and time again that we're very pro-local business-"

"Josephine?" Rona interrupted, wearing a slight smile. "You're doing those speeches again."

The mayor paused and laughed. For a moment, she didn't seem like the mayor who won by a landslide, who charmed everyone she met, who seemed able to converse about anything so fluidly. For a moment, she was just that friend in the small Haven high school who joined the speech and debate club, even though it was only a group of four. Rona remembered that laugh from years ago in the diner at four in the morning, drinking milkshakes while they waited for Josephine's car to be serviced after a crash.

She missed that Josephine a little.

"I'm so sorry, I have a meeting later. I must be mentally preparing for it already," she explained with a dismissive wave of her hand. At the curious look Rona wore, Josephine continued. "I've been trying to bring more business to town, but that's all I can say. I'm truly sorry. If all goes well, I'll make an announcement. Do keep this under wraps though, yes?"

Rona nodded. "Of course, it's not problem." Josephine rummaged through her purse, paying her far more than what the few tulips were worth, even if they had they been in pristine condition. Before she could raise any sort of objection, her friend practically fled her shop.

"I'm needed elsewhere, it was good seeing you, bye!" Josephine strung together, words fading into the distance as she scuttled to her car, heels tapping against the concrete sidewalk. Rona put the cash in the pocket of her jacket and resumed the cleaning of her store, scooping up broken glass and tossing it in a double-lined trash bag and collecting flowers on top of her counter. 

Her bell rung a second time that hour as the newly appointed sheriff strolled in, head turning right and left like he was looking for something, of which she had no idea. What else was there to look for in a semi-cleaned flower shop that was recently robbed? 

"Have you seen the mayor?" he asked abruptly, his tone slightly more urgent than his demeanor showed, with his posture relaxed and a calm resting face. "I was told she came here."

"Nice to see you too," she said, reluctantly letting go of her broom a second time. Cullen looked at her with a mix of confusion and surprise. "Twice today, hm?"

"Ah, yes, sorry, it's good to see you too." He paused, looking about her shop before his eyes settled back on her. "I apologize for barging in here, but the mayor's secretary mentioned that she came by here."

Rona nodded and leaned against her counter. The sigh that slipped her lips crystallized in the air in front of her. "Actually, you just missed her, but she's rather busy."

Cullen stuffed his hands in his pockets, falling silent once more as his eyes wandered the shop. 

"Is there something I can help you with?" Her tone caught her off guard, sounding plenty more irritated than she meant. Thankfully, he didn't seem to take that to heart - or if he had, he didn't show it. 

"Actually, seeing as I just missed the mayor, I was thinking I could help you." Now that caught her off guard.

"What?"

"You haven't put up anything over the window. I can do that," he offered, though it seemed more like an observation as he didn't wait for her response, pulling out a few of the black trash bags from the box and briefly looking over at her. "May I?" Cullen finally asked. A little too dumbstruck to reply aloud, Rona simply nodded her head.

He tore both garbage bags down their seams and, realizing the route he was taking, she hurried off to grab the tape under the counter and passed it to him. Cullen tore off a few pieces of tape, partially sticking them to the back of his glove as he reached up to the top of the window frame with a height she could not achieve without the help of a stepping stool and a few books underneath her. 

"There," he said as he finished, picking at the adhesive from the tape that stuck to his gloves, "that should keep the snow out, for the most part. The wind might knock it down at some point, though."

"It's a good enough solution for now," she said. "Thank you."

"No worries, I'm just glad to help out however I can."

"I'm glad, though I suppose it might be a little rude of me to say I expected you to be doing something more... productive with your time."

"Catching whoever broke in, you mean?"

She could feel her face heating up. Yes, that was what she meant. How could she _not_ think that, though? 

"That was what I came here for. I needed to ask the mayor some questions, but you said she was busy and I felt my time would be better spent helping you than waiting on her," Cullen explained with a smile she couldn't help but mirror. For a moment, she thought she saw him blushing as well, but blamed it on the poor lighting. She should have probably turned on the overhead lights, but she had a better idea.

"If you'll help me clean up the rest of this place, I think I can get you to the mayor faster." The skeptical look he wore said more than words ever could; how could she, a florist, get in with the mayor faster than the sheriff? "We were the best of friends in high school."

Cullen nodded, like that made so much more sense. "And now?"

That, she didn't answer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope all of you liked the update. Remember, I love feedback and you can find updates and notes on my blog (jedi-gingervora @ tumblr) under the tag "thorns and roses blogging".


	5. Important Meetings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A trip to city hall, a florist has more sway with the mayor than the sheriff.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has been edited to the best of my ability but it is not beta'd, just so you know. Thanks for reading!

Her shop had never looked better, even considering the trash bag cover for her window. The glass picked up, the floors scrubbed, and shelves dusted. An hour to kill, she had said. At the very least, Josephine's meeting would be that long, then she'd head back to her office and, undisturbed, work through some paperwork until she finished, so it would've been pointless to leave too soon. 

However, it seemed like coming later had it's disadvantages as well. Her secretary, Leliana, insisted on making them coffee. Cullen had started to refuse but Rona elbowed him. Judging by the grimace, she figured she must have elbowed him a tad too hard and muttered a soft apology.

"We'd love some," he said with a slightly pained smile. 

As Leliana rushed off to start the coffee, Rona explained, "You don't want to lie to Leliana when you want something. She sees through everyone."

"How did _you_ know I wanted coffee?"

"Back at your office, you looked tired. Plus the sidewalk was completely clean. That takes a lot of time and energy."

"I'm a little surprised you picked up on those things. Have you ever tried detective work before?" Before she had to answer, Leliana came back with two cups of hot coffee.

"I'm not sure how our new sheriff likes his coffee, so I left it black. For you, Rona, two sugars and two creams, like always," she said, passing them the hot, disposable cups and tucking a stray strand of her red hair behind her ear. She wore a sly smile as her eyes bounced between the two. "What brings you both here, florist and sheriff duo?"

"I need to talk to her. It's important," Cullen said, holding the hot cup of coffee carefully. 

"I'm so sorry, but I need a little more than "it's important" to interrupt the mayor. She has a lot of work to get through today. But I can make an appointment for you and-"

"Tell Josephine _I_ say it's important. I need to talk with her," Rona interrupted, hoping that Leliana wouldn't delve too much into it or jump to conclusions, especially having the new sheriff here with her. Surely Josephine would share some things with Leliana, but how much was always the question.

"I will do," Leliana replied with a smile that didn't reach her eyes. She walked around her desk and opened the door to the mayor's office, poking her head. Her words must have been whispered because Rona couldn't make out anything she said even though she tried. A moment later, Josephine came out, eyes on Rona though they quickly shifted to Cullen and she stretched out her hand for him to shake.

"Ah, our new sheriff! I do apologize for not meeting with you earlier - I have just been so busy. Regardless, welcome to Haven!" Josephine said with that usual charismatic spark. "How may I help you... both?"

Rona looked past Josephine, instead staring out the windows. The snow started to fall a little more heavily, acting like a white filter on the world it covered. Everything looked grey, as if nothing could be as vibrant as they were in the Summer. Josephine's office told a different story, almost as if it wanted to prove it could be vibrant and welcoming with the yellow drapes, the wooden floors, and plush furniture. A statement against reality.

"Actually, let's take this into your office, if you don't mind," Cullen said when Rona didn't respond. Josephine nodded, stepping aside to gesture them through the doors. Once inside, Leliana closed the doors from the other side and Josephine took a seat behind her desk as Rona and Cullen took the chairs across from her, both careful not to spill the coffee. 

"Might I ask what this is about?" she asked, eyes flickering over to Rona once more. She could see Josephine's anxiety in all of this and couldn't help but feel bad for making her like this.

"Don't worry, Josephine, it's not what you think," Rona explained, hoping the apology was implied. "Sheriff Rutherford said this was important so I told him I'd help him." Josephine's lips pursed together tightly, clearly frustrated with her but from the sag of her shoulders, Rona knew she was at least a little relieved. Looking to Cullen, she could see the confusion on his slightly furrowed brow.

"Whoever broke into miss Lavellan's shop was after a flash drive... someone had hidden there. It has the schematics to the city hall. I'm afraid someone might be planning something." Cullen leaned forward, fingers laced together across his lap.

"Are you aware of whom or if they intend anything?" Josephine asked. 

"Not... yet, but I'm still very early in my investigation. I thought it was important to alert you that someone might attempt to break into city hall. Is there anyone you can think of who might attempt this? Someone you might have angered, a political enemy, someone you're on terms with?" Josephine nodded and Rona held her breath. Perhaps she should have just given Cullen a signed note and sent him on his way. She had to order new flowers and do more insurance things, so was she really needed here?

"There's always a few people who will disagree with what I do as mayor, but Leliana can give you a list of the more vocal ones, if it'll aid your investigation," Josephine said and Rona couldn't help but give a soft sigh of relief. At the sound, she watched at the corner of the mayor's mouth flashed with a smile. "Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I wish I wasn't so busy, but I will have to ask you to leave as I have a lot to do today."

Cullen stood up and nodded, a slight smile on his lips as he held up a hand apologetically, the other safely holding the full coffee. "It's no trouble." 

As Rona took a stand as well, Josephine held up her hand. "Though, I do want to talk with you for a few moments." Rona and Cullen traded looks, both confused though not equally so. Sitting back down, she had a vague idea what it would be about. 

"I'll be right behind you," she said as she sat back down. He gave a wordless nod and left the room, the sound of the door clicking as it closed the only sound between the two women. "I'm really sorry I-"

Josephine shook her head. "No, it's quite alright. I can see why you offered to help. If you hadn't, I might not have seen him in hours, if not days. I'm more surprised that you offered at all."

Rona felt her face heating up and her fingers gripped at the edges of the arm rest. "Why is that?" She couldn't hide the anger that ran with her words. If anything, it caught herself off guard and she took a deep breath to steady herself. 

"I- ah, never mind. That was impolite of me to say so." Josephine shook her head and for the first time, Rona noticed how tired she looked.

"Hey, are you alright?" she asked.

"It's just... it's been a long day. How about you? I was in such a rush earlier, I forgot to ask. If it were me, I'd probably be eating all the chocolate I had at my disposal," Josephine said with a hint of a laugh and Rona couldn't help but return with a small smile.

"It's stressful, but you coming by earlier helped. Right after it happened, it seemed too big to be real. But everyone's been so helpful so far I'm starting to think it'll be alright. Our new sheriff has been especially helpful. How new is he to Haven?"

Josephine leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest. "I'd say about a week. Our last sheriff retired. Generally, sheriffs are elected but no one wanted the position and our two deputies had both left a few weeks prior, so I made some offers to sheriff deputies from our neighboring cities and he was the only one to accept. I'm a little surprised he's gone straight into helping you. I expected him to start hiring, first."

Rona nodded and began to stand. "Whatever the reasoning is, I'm glad for his help as well. I'll... see you later? For the potpourri thing?"

"Yes, yes, I'll probably call you first," Josephine said, already sitting up and returning to the stacks of paper on her desk. Rona waited a moment, wondering if she should say anything else, but decided against it and left the room without another word. She watched as Cullen pocketed a folded piece of paper and picked up his coffee off Leliana's desk. 

She left city hall before him, zippering her jacket back up and wrapping her scarf around her neck and ears, the fog from her warm breath just barely drifting over the wad of fabric. She was thankful for the coffee, holding it with both hands to keep her fingers warm. Despite being later in the day, it felt the same as before, if not a tad colder. Rona perked up at the sound of his following footsteps crunching in the layer of snow on the steps.

"If you don't mind me asking, what happened between you and they mayor?" Cullen asked, ears already turning red in the winter air. 

"What?" she asked in turn, turning to look at him properly with a faux-confused expression. 

He regarded her for a moment but seemingly let it go. Her eyes were drawn down by his fingers tapping at the coffee cup. "Shall I take you back to your shop?"

Rona shrugged and nodded, trying not to look back at city hall. "Yeah, I have a lot to do."


	6. Teaming Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sera insists on working outside the law.

Ringing woke Rona with a startle, half falling off of her couch as she scrambled for her phone. Her living room table was covered in plastic sheets, ribbon, and bowls of potpourri. The finished products were all shoved together in a cardboard box, covered in faded writing. Snow piled high on her windows and barely a break in the clouds, it seemed the time could have been anywhere from seven in the morning to four in the evening. 

Blinking a few times, the text on her phone came into focus: Sera. For a moment, she considered letting the call go to voicemail, but the icon on the top of her phone said that this was not her first call of the morning. With a sigh, she answered the call.

"Morning, Sera," she said, able to sound awake though she very much wasn't. "Do you need something?"

"No, I'm calling you to gossip about the mayor and her secretary- Of course I need something!" Sera said. Rona could almost imagine the her friend with her arms crossed, bouncing her leg, and wearing that signature scowl. "I need you to meet up with me. I got something that might help 'ya."

"Sera, call the sheriff. I'm busy trying to save my own business." Sera answered with a string of words, of which she could only identify 'no', 'weird-y', and 'stuffed up his own pants'. "Fine, can't you tell me over the phone?"

"Nope. No way, no how. Meet me at the park in thirty minutes?" Sera asked. Rona looked around at the state of her living and the progress of her potpourri project, of which only half was really finished. 

"Fine, yeah, I'll meet you there," she gave in with a sigh and Sera quickly hung up, leaving Rona to get herself ready. Another cold day, the forecast said, and she pulled on her usual winter gear, and because Sera wanted to meet at the park, she opted for her snow boots instead of her regular shoes. Walking through snow was a sure way to go through ten pairs of shoes during the winter.

Even though the cold nipped at her nose and her eyelashes frosted over the moment she left, a walk to the park sounded much nicer than driving. The calm air didn't so much as stir the fresh snow on the ground, and as she passed house by house it made her thankful that everyone was so diligent about plowing their sidewalks and salting them down, things she needed to keep up on.

"What took you so long!" Sera practically hissed as she came into view at the park. The woman was similarly bundled up, dressed in a plaid jacket, a bright yellow scarf, and a knitted pink hat. 

"Relax, Sera, I'm five minutes late."

Sera groaned long, though not loudly. "I said this was important."

Rona pursed her lips together. "Actually, you didn't."

Sera looked up, then down, face contorted in confusion. "Whatever, but this is important, yeah? I think I might know who robbed your shop and took my flashdrive."

Rona's eyes went wide. "What? How? Sera, this is exactly the sort of thing you should take to Cullen, not me. I can't do anything about it."

"Yes! You can!" Sera argued, though for what reason Rona could not guess. "Come on, I know who it is and I also know that if Mr. Flufferstuff shows up, they're going to make a run for it. No money, no answers, no nothing. Come on, Rona, I can't just go in there myself."

She bit at her lip, wondering what she should do. Part of her wanted to take a step back, send Sera off to the sheriff. The other part of her wanted her stuff back. Answers could wait, she just wanted her money back to fix her window as soon as she could. 

"Fine, yeah, let's go."

\---

_Knock. Knock. Knock._

Rona stumbled back when the door opened right away, leaving Sera standing in the doorway unphased. 

"Hello! How may I help you?" the man said, head peeking through the doorway. Dark skin and blond hair were surprising enough without the tattoo on the side of his face. Though Sera barely told her anything on the way over in her little buggy, Rona had a feeling who this guy was.

"Let us in or I'll let the Crows know where you are," Rona threatened, crossing her arms over her chest. Silence hung dead in the air as she waited for him to make a move, to bolt past them or slam the door in their faces. It was more than a few seconds before he opened up the door wider and gestured them in. Sera took one glance back at Rona, the kind she could read as "I hope you know what you're doing" and wished for the same. 

"You stole from my shop two days ago," she stated, watching as he sat down on the edge of the motel bed, fingers laced in his lap. "Money and a flash drive. I want both back."

"Ah, the money, no problem. The flash drive will be a little harder as it is no longer in my possession," the man said as he moves to one of the drawers under the TV, tugging at the handles though it doesn't budge with the first few pulls. When it finally comes out, her eyes catch the green of cash. _Lots_ of cash. He scooped up a handful and tosses it her, the bills fanning out as he tries to run past them.

"Not so fast," Sera grunts as she hits him square in the forehead with her palm and the man falls to the ground with a thunk. "Ouch, that's going to hurt later."

"It hurts right now, too," he groaned from the floor, a hand on his head. "Who are you ladies?"

"Where on Earth did you get all of this cash?" Rona asked, almost breathless at the sight. Could she take the money? Some of it was probably hers, but the rest of it?

"My payment for the job," he explained, though not trying to get up just yet. "You're welcome to whatever you feel is a fair share if you'll just keep hush-hush to the Crows, yes?"

"Oh! What about me?" Sera excited asked, practically bouncing.

Rona lowered herself down so that she kneeled beside him. "I'll take my payment in what you owe me _and_ the name of who hired you."

"Ah, that's also a little tricky. I don't know who exactly hired me. Dead drop sort of thing, yes?" he answered.

"Sera, how do you feel about working with this man to find out some answers?" she asked, looking up at Sera who looked away for a moment before giving a shrug and a nod. "Good." Rona scooped up a handful of twenties and stuffed them into her jacket pocket.

"Ah, if we'll be working together, you might as well address me by my name. I'm Zevran," he introduced himself, working his way to stand up again with his hand held out and she took it just long enough to shake hands with him. 

"Good luck," Rona told the both of them and left the room, leaning against the door to close it behind her. She ran her hands through her hair, looking out at the snow landscape of Haven, just to take a moment for herself and breathe. Pulling up her hood, she walked away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Though being a Cullavellan fic, Cullen doesn't appear in this chapter and I'm sorry! However this was very important to setting things up for later so stay tuned - more shippy stuff is on the way.


	7. Procedure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rona calls to give Cullen information, but it doesn't go as planned.

Walking in the snow, one doesn't spend too long gloveless on their phones, but thankfully the falling snow didn't interfere with her data. Trading out which hand holds the phone and which one goes to safety in her pockets, Rona called the sheriff.

"Can we meet up at the diner?" she asked. 

"I can- wait, about your case?" he replied, though Rona could barely hear his voice with the wind picking up around her. "Yeah, I'm just now done following up a lead. I can meet you there in half an hour."

"Sounds good." 

The walk from the motel to the diner was further than she anticipated, but the long walk gave her time to think. Most of it was thoughts on home much she hated snow, though. Her snow boots felt like they weighed a ton and she could feel the snow soaking through. Next time she bought snowshoes, she'd do it right. Her feet were freezing.

The warm air and smell of burgers and fries were very welcome as she entered the diner, shutting the glass pane behind her and seeing the much welcome sight of Isabela in her uniform and apron.

"My, my, nice to see you again," Isabela called from behind the counter, wearing a smile like a cat. "Haven't seen you around in a while. What's happened?"

Rona began pulling her layers off, tossing them on the seat of the booth. "My, ah, shop was broken into. I've been pretty busy trying to sort out everything."

The shock on her face as she ran around the counter to hug her was heartwarming and she wrapped her arms around her in return. "You find out who did that, and if they ever show up here, I'll spit in their food, you got it?" she said, arms still holding her tightly.

Rona laughed, her thoughts turning to Zevran. "That's unnecessary, but thank you." Isabela pulled away, hand lingering on her shoulder as she gave the florist a sympathetic smile and nod before returning to her post. "The usual?"

"Make it two. I'm meeting up with someone," Rona said as she slid into the booth and pulled her phone out of her pocket to see four new texts from Sera. 

dude said he broke ur window bc he couldn't pick the lock. LAME  
-seraaa

says hes super sorry  
-seraaa

also says he used the dead drop for dropping off the flash drive. gonna investigate that  
-seraaa

do i have to bbysit this guy  
-seraaa

As quickly as she could with thawing fingers, Rona texted back that she had to keep him with her, just in case he tried to skip town. This was possibly their only real lead and she wasn't going to cross her fingers that Sera could pull something off like this again. Not that she didn't doubt Sera could, but Rona just didn't want to leave it up to chance. 

"Oh, is that why you smell like flowers? New perfume?" Isabela asked, hands busying themselves with the coffee.

"What? Wait no, I- that's from spending all night making potpourri. I'm meeting with the sheriff about my shop," Rona explained, setting her phone on the table and leaning back in her seat, arms crossed over her chest. 

"Potpourri?"

"It's the Mayor's idea, really. Almost all of my flowers were damaged in the break in so she gave me the idea of making potpourri for the fundraiser she plans on putting on." 

"Good, good. I can't have your shop going out of business. I do so like all the flowers I get from my, ah, suitors," Isabela said as she dropped off the two mugs of coffee and left to the kitchen for the meal. "Well, I'll see if I can buy some up. Though, I'm not really sure _what_ to do with potpourri."

Rona checked her phone again only to find Sera hadn't texted back and she wasn't too sure if that was a good thing or not. When she looked up, Cullen was standing by the table, his curly hair combed nicely and a dusting of snow on his uniform. Out of sheer surprise, she attempted to stand, hitting her legs against the edge of the table and fell back into her seat. 

He chuckled into his hand and slid into the seat across from her and began pulling off his outer coat. "It's nice to see you again."

Having expected to dive straight into business, the casual greeting caught her off guard. "I- uh, yeah, same!"

"I see you ordered for us?" he asked as he reached for the sugar and cream, though he barely added any to his drink. 

"Yeah. I mean, if you don't like it, it's just the daily soup."

"I could do for a warm bowl of soup on a day like this. The snow has really been picking up lately, huh?"

She nodded and pouring in the cream and sugar into her own coffee. Having run out of her house so quickly at Sera's call, she hadn't grabbed her usual morning cup or even a light breakfast. "Usually it doesn't get this bad, not for this long. I'm only hoping the cover you put over the window will actually keep the snow out."

"You know, I passed by your shop on the way and the bag is still up, so I think you're good for now," Cullen offered and she picked the sympathy out of his voice easily. She was more than accustomed to hearing it in her life, but she didn't mind it coming from him. "So, anyways, you called me here for a reason?"

"Ah! Yes, of course," Rona said, wishing she had spent more of her time planning how to tell the sheriff that she found the guy who broke in and was working with him in an unofficial capacity and took some of his money, rather than complaining about snow on the walk. "Sera did some digging and found out that whoever broke into my shop used a dead drop to get instructions and drop off the flash drive."

"That's good to know, but it's not that important if we don't know where the dead drop is. How did she find this out?" Cullen asked, lacing his fingers together around his mug. 

"She's working on that now, last I heard, and I have no clue. Honestly, I think it's better not to know some times," she answered vaguely as Isabela came in just long enough to set the two bowls of soup on their table. Chicken noodle. Always a classic. 

Cullen sighed. "I can't allow that. I'm required to follow a certain procedure. Not to mention, if we find this guy and we don't do it properly - _legally_ \- then whoever it is can just walk without so much as a slap on the wrist. Ro- Miss Lavellan, I would suggest you tell your friend to stop before I do."

"Sure," she lied without missing a beat. "I'll see what I can do."

"I-" He stopped himself, looking down for a moment, brows drawn together. "I apologize. I did not mean to sound so coarse. I'm just trying to help you the best way I can."

"Don't worry, I get it," Rona said and meant it, too. "Besides, we still have a lunch and I'd hate to eat in an awkward silence."

The meal itself was enjoyable, as was the company, though Rona did feel a little bad sitting across from him having lied already. _He was just trying to help,_ she told herself, as they talked about things from his drive from Kirkwall to trying to find a new place to live. 

"So how were your other leads?" she asked him as she moved on to her coffee, leaning back in her seat with the warm mug resting nicely in her hands. "You said on the phone you were just finishing it up."

Cullen finished the last of his soup by the time she stopped talking. "Yeah, the list Leliana gave me. Nothing so far, but I still have a few more names to cross out. And nice choice for lunch, by the way. That's really good soup. I might just have to take some back with me to the motel."

Rona paused in the middle of her sip, green eyes wide at the realization. There was without a doubt Cullen was talking about the same motel; there was only one in Haven. To think that Zevran, the man that broke into her shop, had probably been staying a few rooms over from where the new sheriff was. 

"Hey, Pumpkin," Rona heard Isabela say, running up to their table as she pulled on her jacket over the diner uniform. "The news is putting out a weather advisory. Apparently a city north of us is caught in a blizzard. Me and the others are heading home early, just in case. Might want to head home."

"Weather advisory?" Rona set her mug down, trading it out for her phone as she flipped to the weather app. Yup, a blizzard warning, complete with the little red triangle with the exclamation mark. "Shit, I need to get started if I want to make it home." 

"Need a ride?" Isabela asked, pulling up her hood and adjusting her scarf. 

Cullen stepped out from his booth, gathering his jacket into his own hands. "You walked here?" 

"I, ah, yeah." The distance between her house and the diner was much further than walking here from the motel, and that had been a rather long walk as well. As much as she racked her brain for a plausible excuse, she couldn't settle on one believable enough. Instead, she busied herself with putting all of her layers back on. 

"I can take you, if you'd rather," Cullen offered as he put his jacket back on. 

"I can't put either of you out. You should get home."

"No, it's no bother for me," he insisted.

"I don't mind taking you, but I do need to pick up Merrill on the way," Isabela mentioned.

"I suppose that settles it, then." Rona turned to the sheriff as she wrapped her scarf around her neck, tucking the ends into the front of her jacket. Cullen seemed so helpful, or at least willing to help, that it almost made her feel bad. Part of her really did want to text Sera and call the whole thing off, but her curiosity got the better of her and she knew if it was left to the law, even to someone capable, that she might never find out the truth. The whole thing was just too complex for it to be nothing.

Even if it meant lying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> School is starting up again for me and I'm going to try my best to keep up with my deadlines, even write ahead of time, but I am taking a writing class as well so it's possible some chapters might be a day late, though not if I can help it. Thanks for understanding and sticking with me! I have so much planned for this.


	8. Snowstorms

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rona's cheap snowshoes don't protect her from injury and Cullen helps her out.

"God, the snow is really picking up, huh?" Cullen remarked as he pulled into her driveway, her own car almost buried under all the snow. Not just the snow, but the wind as well. Even from inside the sheriff's car, the sounds of the wind were enough to leave her concerned about how bad the snowstorm was going to be. 

"I don't think we've had something this bad in years. You should probably head back as soon as you can. You don't want to drive in a whiteout. It's dangerous enough when it's cold and there's black ice all around the place," Rona said with a sigh. The cold climate sometimes seemed like it was more trouble than it was worth. "Thanks for the ride."

"It's no trouble. I'm simply hoping this storm won't take too long. The longer we wait, the less chance of finding the person who broke into your place," he said, his hand gently resting on his chin, eyes focused like he was working out some mental puzzle. "But for now, I suppose safety is the focus."

She nodded and pushed open the car door, snow bursting to get inside. "I'll see you later then-" The moment she let go of the door to close it, her foot slid out from under her and not even her grip on the car door was enough to stop her from falling out and hitting the ground. For once, she was thankful for the snow that covered everything in Haven, though not so much for the ice she slipped on. 

"Are you okay?" Cullen called out, his voice almost swept away in the rush of the air. Rona struggled to sit herself up, arms reaching up to grab the car door's handle for leverage.

"Yeah, I think I am," she says just before managing to stand up. And fall back down. Her ankle throbbed and she flinched as she tried to touch it to see what the damage was. "On second thought, maybe not." The sound of his door opening and closing cut through the wind and she watched as he rounded the car, head tucked down in his jacket and hands stuffed in his pockets. He knelt down and tossed her arm over his shoulder as he hooked his arm under her's. 

The moment she tried to put her weight back on her right foot, it shifted under her. Rona could feel Cullen trying to keep her upright and balance himself on the slick pavement and she tried not to lean on him too much. He led her to the door where she fumbled with her coat pocket, digging through to grab her house keys. Once unlocked, he opened the door for her, leading her inside to her couch where she plopped herself down and he closed the door.

"Mind if I take your shoe off?" Cullen asked and she nodded in response. He tugged off her boot and the two layers of socks she wore, and she briefly winced at the pain. "It's already swelling and bruising. You've got a sprained ankle. Do you have any ice packets?"

"No, but I've got some plastic bags and a tray full of ice." She shook her head. "But you should be heading home. I can take care of myself, but you don't want to risk a snowstorm."

"Just this one thing and I'll be gone, alright? I can't leave you in good conscious with a sprained ankle all alone," Cullen replied as he left for her kitchen. She could hear the opening and closing of her drawers as he looked for the bags. It only took him a minute or two to fill it up with some ice cubes, and while he worked she stretched to reach the TV remote on her table, next to all her potpourri supplies.

Turning it on, the news started in the middle of it's program. "-and all residents are being advised to stay inside. The winds are picking up to dangerous speeds and the temperature is dropping quickly, which means icy roads. Crank up the heat while you can, gather up all your supplies, and get ready to ride out this storm." 

That didn't sound good. 

Rona craned her neck to look for Cullen right as he came back to her, bag of ice in his hands, wrapped in one of her dish towels. He picked up some of the pillows off her chair and carefully lifted her leg, placing them under her before he put the bag of ice on her ankle. Oh, that felt nice.

"Need anything else before I go?" he asked and Rona had to restrain herself from standing up and telling him not to leave.

"You can't leave!" she settled on. "I know it's a somewhat short trip from here to the motel, but you can't go back out in this weather."

"I'm not going to stay if you're not comfortable, either," Cullen insisted.

Rona shook her head, or as best as she could laying on a couch. "No, it's my fault you're here anyways. Besides, if I sent you out and you got hurt or died in this blizzard, I'd be responsible for our town being sheriff-less."

She watched as he looked from her to the door and back to her. With a sigh - one she couldn't tell if it was of relief or frustration - he unzipped his jacket and took a seat on the chair. Cullen held up his hands for a moment just before pressing them together and looking out at her potpourri set up on her coffee table.

"Looks like you have your work set out for you. How much do you have done?" he asked, grabbing one of the pots and taking a sniff of it. "Oh, that smells nice. I might have to buy some."

She laughed, wishing she could turn on her side to look at him properly. "Barely half. What need does a sheriff have for potpourri in a motel room?" Rona asked, unable to keep the smile off her face.

"Really? If anything, motel rooms are exactly the kind of places that need something nice in them," he said as he set it back down, the pot making a soft tap as it touched the table. "Did all of this yourself?"

"I don't exactly have it in the budget to hire anyone else, so yeah." She muted the TV with her remote and put it back on the table. "I mean, sometimes Sera volunteers to help, but now I can't help but wonder if that was just to hide her stuff without me noticing. Oh, and Josie is setting up that fundraiser, but with this weather, I'm not so sure it'll be any time soon."

From the corner of her eye, she saw as he leaned back in his seat, briefly closing his eyes. "Must be hard running a business in a small town," Cullen commented. At this point, Rona was partially sure that he was just making conversation for the sake of conversation. Was he frustrated? Or uncomfortable staying in a stranger's house?

"Well, I don't have big market to sell to, but I've got a monopoly on it. Any weddings or events, they come to me for floral arrangements. Then I've got my regulars, too." She sighed, a little tired of talking business especially when she spent the last few days figuring out how to recuperate her losses. Still, she didn't mind indulging him with conversation. "I mean, I didn't start this business thinking I'd be rolling in money. How did you get into police work?"

Cullen laced his fingers together and rested them on his lap. "Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to help people-" At her badly stifled laugh, he sat up straight. "Hey!"

"Sorry, sorry," she said, trying to stop laughing, but her mind couldn't help but wander with his answer. "Were you a boy scout?"

"I- yes," he answered simply, though reluctantly. "What, like that's a bad thing?"

"No, no, I'm just- well, you're certainly a boy scout type, not that's bad or anything?" she said, finally starting to calm down. "I'm just trying to picture you younger and in that little scout uniform."

"What about you? Girl scout?" he asked in kind. 

Rona shook her head. "There isn't a girl scout group here in Haven."

"Oh, so you grew up here?" 

Rona shrugged. "For the most part. I, uh, grew up in the foster system actually. The last foster parent I had, I was with for most of my middle and high school years. I actually like it here a lot. It's why I moved back here to open up the Enchanted Garden. I figured out, perhaps a bit too late, that the big city wasn't for me."

"I know what you mean," Cullen said. She waited for him to elaborate and when he didn't, she didn't push for him to explain. After a long silence, he stood back up and shed his coat, draping it across the back of the chair. "Do you have any emergency supplies? I can bring them all into the kitchen, just in case worst comes to the worst."

"I've got a flat of bottled water and food in the basement on the left of the stairs. I think I have some candles and flashlights along with some other stuff in a box on the floor of my closet in the hall. Hey, would you mind turning on my sinks just so it drips a bit while you're at it?"

"Yeah- why?" 

"The pipes will freeze if it gets cold enough, and I don't want to take any chances."

He nodded and left to gather them up, making a small pile in the kitchen, from the items she described to ones she's hadn't thought of, like blankets and her first aid kit she had forgotten about under her bathroom sink. 

"You can take off the ice now," he suggested as he took his seat again. "You don't want to keep it on there too long."

She sat up to take the bag of ice off her foot, though it was half melted by now. For a moment, she was afraid if the power went out, it would be a little harder to get new ice for her ankle before she remembered the abundance of snow outside. Sure, it might not be the best replacement, especially considering they'd have to open the door to get some, but at least there was an alternative.

"You look a little tired," Rona pointed out, noticing him as he rubbed his temples. "You've done enough for now. Why don't you rest for a while? I can handle myself. You can take the couch," she quickly offered. Even though he was here by snowstorm and the fact she was clumsy enough to sprain her ankle, the last thing she wanted to do was be a bad host and make him nap in a chair. 

He didn't argue with her, which only surprised her a little. When she moved to stand up, careful not to place her right foot on the ground, Cullen stood up as well and took her hand in his to guide her into the chair he had been in. Before he settled in on the couch, he took the pillows that were under her feet and put them on the table where she could keep her foot elevated.

Finally, he took his place on the couch, stuffing the remaining pillow under his head and draping his jacket over himself like a blanket. Not daring to un-mute the TV, she settled for working on her potpourri once more, placing the pot on her lap and the plastic bags and ribbons on the arms of the chair. Might as well make something productive of this strange day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm super sorry about missing last week's chapter. I didn't give myself enough time to write until it was too late. Hopefully I'll be better at keeping up with my new schedule, but if worst comes to worst, I might have to make this a bi-weekly updating fic. Thanks!


	9. Long, Cold Nights

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cullen is too helpful for Rona to continue to lie to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With schoolwork piling up and taking up a big portion of my time, I decided to change weekly updates to bi-weekly updates. Sorry if this work feels a little unpolished - I rushed to make my own deadline so it's not beta'd.

Cullen had slept most of the afternoon, which Rona was almost glad for to an extent. All of the potpourri was bagged and tagged, she even hopped to her office for some paperwork that she hopped right back to the living room to work on. A few times she unmuted the TV, only when the news seemed like it was saying something worthwhile about the snowstorm. By dinner time, Cullen had woken up and offered to make a quick meal for the both of them: toast and soup she had bought in mass from the diner not too long ago.

It wasn't long after that she fell asleep, a bowl of soup between her leg and the arm of the chair and insurance papers all over her lap. When she woke up to the sound of wind rushing past the windows, she was back on the sofa with a blanket covering her and her foot snuggly bandaged. 

"I thought you'd sleep longer," she heard Cullen comment from behind her. In the kitchen, she guessed, seeing as the lights were out and she had no way to know for sure. 

"It happens, sometimes." Rona pushed herself up into a sitting position on her couch and looked over her shoulder through the darkness to see a flashlight turn on. "How long have the lights been out?"

"The power went out around ten o'clock, just a few minutes ago, really." Slowly, a few smaller lights joined in with the flashlight as Cullen light a few candles, placing them on the table before her. In the candlelight, she noticed the lack of her potpourri supplies. She only saw Cullen briefly as he ducked back out, running behind her back to the kitchen. "I hope you don't mind, but I busied myself while you were asleep. Your potpourri bags are in that box and I cleaned up the kitchen."

"Oh, well, thanks," Rona tiredly replied rubbing her eyes. "You sure are helpful."

He laughed lightly, cut off by a quick cough. "I'm not one for sitting around and doing nothing."

"You must love paperwork," she said dryly as she wiped a bit of drool off her chin. Oh, that's embarrassing. Hopefully he had been too busy to do much before.

"Oh, you wouldn't believe," he responded in the like minded tone. 

Rona's ears perked at the sound of his footsteps as he returned to the living room, two mugs in hand. He handed one to her as he sat back down facing her. The mug was just barely warm, like it had been set out for a while. 

"I hope you don't mind. I made some coffee earlier, but without the power, I can't heat them up. I know cold coffee isn't great, but it's better than nothing," Cullen said with a shrug before taking taking a sip of his coffee with a grimace. "Actually, I'm tempted to take that back."

At that, she couldn't hold back a laugh before the obvious dawned on her. "The power is out. This house isn't going to stay warm for long. Is the storm still going strong?"

Cullen nodded. "It got bad about an hour ago, but it's calmed down a bit. I'm actually surprised you slept through it. It was rather noisy." 

"I... actually, that's surprising. I don't usually sleep well." Rona bit at her lip, looking at the candle on her table, part of a packaged gift from Ori a year ago that she rarely used except in times like these. 

"Same," he confided. "Generally I only sleep a few hours at a time. Anyways, there's an extra pile of blankets in the kitchen. If you want, I can help you to your room and you can bundle up in there."

She shook her head. "My room is the coldest room in the house, which is great in Summers, but not so great in a snowstorm," Rona sighed. "I'll just bundle up in this chair and hope this storm lifts soon."

Cullen nodded absently and brought the blankets in the kitchen and wrapping one around her shoulders and putting another on her lap. Pulling the last few around himself, he laid back down on the couch looking like a gigantic fluff monster of blankets. Rona watched as he closed his eyes, perhaps trying to sleep through this storm. 

Guilt rose up in her and she wondered how long she would have to lie to him or if it would ever end, depending on how things went. Obviously he wanted to do things by the books properly, but this entire situation didn't feel like it be solved if they went through the legal channels. So far their only lead was Zevran and would Cullen even believe him with what he said about being paid to get the flash drive or think it was just a ploy? 

"I lied," she blurted out before she could stop herself. The tension tore at her, worry plaguing her, asking if she was doing the right thing. 

"What?" Cullen asked, peeking through closed eyes. 

"I lied. I mean, I withheld the information, but that's just as bad." She ran a hand through her hair. "Cullen, I know who robbed my shop."

Cullen sat up as fast as he could and for a moment she couldn't read him at all. Was it anger? Confusion? Disappointment? The dim lighting certainly didn't help.

"I found him today. Sera got a lead and convinced me that if you showed up and waved your badge around that he'd disappear and we'd never find out anything," she explained before he could say anything. "I didn't tell you because... I don't know if you'd believe him. Or me for that matter. He says that someone paid him to steal that flash drive but that he used a dead drop for getting the job and dropping it off so he has no idea who hired him but I told Sera to look into it and I'm _sorry_. I should have done the right thing and just called you but..."

She trailed off, not knowing what else to say. There hadn't really been a real or personal reason why she hadn't involved him other than pure curiosity to find out what was at the bottom of this.

"Also, he was apparently paid enough that he just paid me back for all the damages," Rona added, hoping that this and what she said before didn't bring him to the conclusion that she didn't call him because she was bribed off. "Something just feels... off. Who pays that much for stolen blueprints of City Hall? What do they need it for?"

She waited for him to say something in return. She waited and waited until he lowered himself to lay back on the couch, his hands behind his head. 

"You know, I think my investigation is starting to hit a dead end. If you ever need any help, just call me," he said. Her eyes went wide, replaying the words in her head over and over. Was he really not going to pursue this? Wasn't that illegal?

Just how she had waited for him to respond, a similar silence progressed as she tried to wrap her mind around the present reality. 

"Why?"

Without missing a beat, he answered, "I've got a good feeling about you."

"Care to explain?"

"You don't seem like the type ready and willing to hurt others. In fact, since you came clean to me about all of it, I'm even more sure of my decision."

 _All of it_ , he had said. It was true, she supposed. She told him everyone that was relevant, but leaving out some things felt like she was betraying those three words. No, she didn't have to tell him every last detail. It was doubtful he wanted to hear her life story or troubles, even if they tied in to what was happening just a little. 

"I won't try to betray your trust," Rona muttered, looking back at the gifted candle. "Thank you."

He smiled. "Don't mention it."


	10. Sleepy Mornings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The following morning and the blizzard calms down.

Rona woke up shivering under a mountain of blankets. The cold had thoroughly seeped into her home, all but freezing the air around her. Sitting up from the curled up position she must have assumed in her sleep, she noticed all of the candles had snuffed themselves out, though judging by the pools of wax in them she had only slept for an hour or two at best. 

Turning to check on her guest, she peered to find him under the mass of blankets he hid himself under, only able to see the top of his head poking out. Honestly, she would have smiled at the sight if her thoughts hadn't been so preoccupied on the cold. Though she still wore her jacket and had about three or four blankets to warm her, she doubted sleep would come very easily unless she could warm up more.

The sigh that slipped her lips crystallized in the air before her and she crawled further under her blankets, covering herself up to her ears. What she wouldn't give for a nice, hot drink. At that thought, her eyes searched for the cup of coffee Cullen had given her. It had barely been warm then, so there was little doubt the drink was now closer to a frozen treat than anything else. Still, once the power went back on, she'd have something to warm up.

"Woke up?" she heard Cullen drowsily ask underneath the blankets.

"Yeah. I can't keep warm in here," Rona answered as she turned to look at him, Cullen just barely peeking his eyes out from the top of the blankets. A moment passed where neither said anything when finally Cullen lifted up his arm, pulling up the blankets with him. 

"Come over here," he said, gesturing at her with his hand. When she made no indication to move, he added, "I promise I don't mean anything by it other than I'm also very cold."

Wordlessly, she gathered up her blankets and tried to move as carefully to the couch as she could on one foot in the dark. She draped half of her blankets over him as she settled onto the couch, her back against his chest. Cullen let his arm down to covered some of his blankets over her, his hand then resting it on top of her shoulder. The added warmth from him was noticed immediately, making her regret not having suggested it earlier.

It felt like only a second passed when she closed her eyes that the TV blared to life and the lights suddenly turned on, but with the sun streaming through the cracks in her blinds, it must have been hours that passed. As she sat up, Rona couldn't help but look at the sheriff on her couch still peacefully asleep. Gently moving his hand from her shoulder, she stood up though careful not to put too much weight on her bad foot. The floor still felt cold as she limped along to the kitchen, the cold cup of coffee in her hands though she was eager to brew a fresh pot of coffee. 

Rona put the mug in the microwave for a minute and a half before turning to the fridge, thankful that the cold house more than made up for the lack of power to keep her food chilled. Doubling up on her usual portions for scrambled eggs and toast, keeping her guest in mind.

The guest she had slept next to for warmth.

Whether it was the heat of the oven, the heater blasting at full strength, or something else, Rona could feel her face warm up at the thought. Of course, it had meant nothing. It was a blizzard, they were cold. It had been the _sensible_ thing to do. Looking up from the eggs cooking on the skillet, her eyes settled on Cullen still fast asleep on her couch. The space she had occupied in front of his was still open, like he was inviting her back to sleep comfortably. 

The microwave blared in her ears, knocking her from her thoughts. She took the mug out, setting it on the counter to cool before returning her attention back to the eggs. Once they were done, she served them on two separate plates just a minute before the toast was finished. The moment she set the plate on the table in front of him, his eyes opened as he looked up at her. 

"You could've woken me up to help," Cullen yawned as he stretched his arms. "I wouldn't have minded."

"It was no problem." She didn't have the courage to say that he had looked too peaceful to bother him. Part of her didn't even want to think about having shared the couch together in fear of turning an embarrassing shade of red. Instead, she gestured to the breakfast. "Eat up. I'm sure the snow plows will clear out the streets soon, but we'll still need shovel the driveway."

"We?" he asked, sounding somewhat entertained as he sat up and took the plate onto his lap. "In case you forgot, you're the one with the sprained and swollen ankle. You really shouldn't be doing anything like shoveling snow."

Rona couldn't help but smile at his concern. "Even if I'm not actively shoveling snow, I'm not going to let my guest do everything by himself."

\---

It had been a slight challenge getting her snow boots on to go outside. Thankfully, she still wore the clothes she had yesterday, so there was no need for any awkward help in getting dressed. Fully bundled up for the snow, Rona pulled out the snow shovel and the bag of rock salt from her closet, handing off the shovel to Cullen.

Quick to close the door behind them to keep the heat inside her house, Rona stood with the majority of her weight on one leg, leaning against the door. Snow still fell in small clumps, but not nearly as heavy as it had been the day before. Cullen started to work right away, shoveling away at the snow that piled high above her knees.

"You know," he said after a while, drawing in heavy breaths, "I've shoveled snow before, but never this much."

"Welcome to Haven," she said. Reaching into the bag, she tossed a handful of salt to where he had cleared the snow to melt away the remaining snow and ice, and even tossing just a little more salt to keep any ice from reforming. The last thing they'd need was to clear the driveway only to slip on ice. In her case, slip on ice _again_.

By the time Cullen finished, there was a clear pathway through the wall of snow to his car as well as a path for his car to get to the street. Well, as soon as the snow plows came around.

"They should be here soon," Rona said, holding on to Cullen's arm as she half limped, half hopped up the driveway. At his insistence, he held on to the bag of rock salt and she took the shovel, which she half used to help herself along. 

"Oh, the coffee seems to have gone cold while we were away," Cullen said as he picked up the glass pot out of the coffee maker. 

"Here, I can-"

"No," he firmed said, holding out his hand when she started to get out of her seat. "I insist. Rona, it's just using the microwave."

She couldn't help but give a small laugh at that. In the back of her mind, she wondered if he insisted because of her foot or if he would have insisted regardless. She could resign herself to think it was because of her foot, but Cullen seemed the kind of person who didn't mind helping. After all, he had offered her a ride home even after Isabela offered. Even when he responded to her 9-1-1 call, he had insisted on taking her somewhere she felt safe and paid for the food.

Was he this nice to everyone? Rona couldn't help but to wish it was just how he treated her.

"So, uh, last night you said you were in the foster system here in Haven. Do you still keep in touch with your foster parents?" he asked as he put the coffee into two separate cups and in the microwave before leaning against the counter. 

"I would if I could. Deshanna passed a year before I returned to Haven. Still, I keep in touch with my foster-sister, Ori. Actually, I was at her wedding the night of the break in," she remembered. The wedding had been beautiful, though small with only family and a handful of close friends from both sides. Perhaps since they were family, Ori had ordered all of her floral arrangements through Rona which ended up covering last month's rent well enough.

"Right, I remember you telling me that," he replied with a nod. The microwave rang at the timer hit zero and he pulled out. As he handed off the coffee to her, he asked, "Did you, ah, go to the wedding with someone?"

Her grip on the coffee weakened and the mug dropped a few inches before she lurched forward to get a better handle on it, some of the hot drink spilling on to her hands. Cullen instantly moved to grab a napkin and pressed it against her hand to help clean up. 

"A little clumsy lately, aren't I?" she joked with a forced laugh to cover up her mistake. He pulled away from her hand and used the napkin to wipe up the last of the coffee that had fallen to the counter. "But, um, no. I went by myself."

"I see," he simply said. Rona held her tongue, waiting to see if he'd say anything more on the subject only to find herself disappointed when he didn't add anything more.

"Anyways," she said as she cast her gaze down, more than eager to move on with the conversation. "Think you'll be able to handle the snow here in Haven?" 

He nodded. "Yeah, I've lived in places with snow. I'm just hoping that Haven isn't home to many blizzards."

"Not to my knowledge."

"Then I think I'll do just fine." 

Looking up from her coffee, she caught his gaze and neither moved to end it. Only when the TV stole her attention with an announcement of the snowplows finally out to clear the roads did she look away. Cullen cleared his throat and set down his mug.

"Since it seems I won't be here much longer, how about I put up what I brought out last night?" he asked, gesturing to the stacked items in her kitchen, ranging from bottled water to blankets. "Would you like me to check up on you tomorrow and see how you're doing?"

"I appreciate the help," she began, feeling as though she already regretted where she was heading with the line of thought, "but you don't need to check up on me. I can rarely afford to be at home, sick."

"I see."

"But I might be at my shop if you want to swing by," Rona offered.

With a smile, he answered, "I'll see you then."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woops almost missed my deadline. I hope you enjoyed, and as always, I'd love it if you could comment and give me feedback~


	11. Reopening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Do things change after cuddling together for warmth? Well, maybe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Better late than never, right?

It took two days to clean up The Enchanted Garden after the snowstorm. That is, with the help of both Sera and Zevran. It didn't take much convincing since Sera apparently felt bad enough about putting her store at risk, and with Zevran in her debt for getting Cullen off his trail. With the window replaced and the flowers arriving just on time, Rona was able to reopen her store without delay. 

She stood behind the counter, marveling at the sight of fully stocked flowers. It was a sight she sorely missed this last week. Sera stood by the newly replaced window, leaning against the dry mop with droopy eyes like she hadn't slept a wink in the last twenty-four hours. 

"Sera," Rona said as she straightened up, tentatively putting weight on her previously strained ankle. "Why don't you make a trip for coffee from the diner and head home? You look like you could use it."

Sera yawned. "You sure? The place is going to open soon, right? Sure you don't want me to help out?" she asked, though she was already putting up the mop and pulling on her jacket. 

"Yeah, you've helped enough. Grab some for me as well?"

"Two sugars, two creams. Got it. Want me to grab something for the sheriff?" Sera asked, tossing her scarf around her neck. 

Rona could feel her face heating up. "What? Why?"

"Come on, Ronaly. He's shown up twice the past two days," Sera pointed out as she slipped on her coat. 

"That's no indication he'll show up today," Rona replied, crossing her arms over her chest. Sera didn't bother to reply to her, instead just laughing as she left through the back door. 

Her eyes flickered to the clock on the wall, the minute hand quickly closing in on the ten and Rona walked to the door to flip the hanging sign to show 'Open'. Barely a second later, the glass door opened and she took a few hurried steps backwards. The man dips his head to avoid hitting the frame of the door as he entered the shop with a big grin on his face.

"Lavellan!" he bellowed as he leaned down and wrapped his arms around her in a too-tight hug. "Ahh, I've missed you!"

"Bull! Oh, I think you mean you missed my flowers," she laughed, wrapping her arms around his neck briefly before pulling away. "It's great to see you again. What do you need?"

“Whatever this gets me,” he says as he tossed three fifty dollar bills onto her counter. 

“Oh, Bull…” Rona trailed off, looking from the money back to him. “Did you get in trouble?”

“Only because your shop closed down,” he laughed. “I’m just making up for lost flowers.”

She smiled, glad to just see Bull. The idea that it might not take long to make up lost revenue helped too. “In the mood for roses or something a little less traditional?”

“Surprise me,” Bull said.

Rona set to work, first grabbing a wide and tall vase before making her way around her shop, pulling flowers into her arms carefully. She gathered up more than just a few of her peach and pink roses, a handful of lavender, several pink lilies, and enough assorted gerberas to build up the kind of expensive bouquet he wanted. 

“So how has the bounty hunting business been?” she asked as she began to build up the bouquet.

“Not too bad. But not too great,” he admitted. “Living in a small town doesn’t give me much business. It’s cheap to live out here, but not many people running out on their bail head out here.”

“It’d be a good place to hide,” Rona said, her thoughts instantly turning to Zevran. The bulk of the bouquet was built up, leaving her to decorate it with the smaller flowers.

“That it would be, if I didn’t live here,” Bull said with a laugh just a moment before the bell for the front door rung.

“Hey,” Bull bellowed. From behind the mountain that was the bouquet, she could hear someone slapping the other on the back which she could only guess was Bull greeting whomever walked into her store. “You don’t look familiar. New to town?”

“Only a little,” she heard Cullen reply. Rona quickly peaked out from behind the flowers, a tinge of a blush on her cheeks to go with her smile. With two coffees in hand, he awkwardly stood next to Bull who practically eclipsed him. “Good morning Rona. I’m glad to see this place up and running like it should be.”

Placing one more flower in the vase before stepping out from behind the counter, she looked to him and then to the coffee. “Long night?”

Cullen laughed a bit, glancing nervously at Bull who seemed a little too interested in their exchange. “Actually, I figured you were the one who had a long night and I… bought this one for you.” He held out one, labeled ‘Rona’ and ‘caramel’ in scratchy handwriting she recognized as Isabela’s. “I couldn’t remember how you liked your coffee.”

“It’s perfect, thank you,” she said with a smile as she took the coffee even though Sera was off getting her something similar. “Ah, Cullen, let me introduce you to Bull. I mentioned him to you the night of the break in?”

“Ah yes. Haven’s local bounty hunter, right?” Cullen asked, holding out his hand. “I’m the new sheriff.”

Bull took it and shook heartily. “I’m Bull. Or, well, that’s what people call me around here.”

Cullen looked more than just a little confused and his face showed it. “Why?”

“Because I asked them to,” Bull said with a smile.

“Bull is my first customer today,” Rona interjected, realizing the current conversation was going nowhere. Stepping back behind the counter, she took a sip of the coffee Cullen brought her before setting it down and resuming her work. “He’s one of my regulars, actually.”

“A few flowers go a long way, am I right?” Bull said with a light laugh. Though she was behind the mass of flowers, she could see him elbow the new sheriff who was rubbing the back of his neck and trying to look anywhere else than at the two people in the shop.

Cullen coughed into his fist and then said, “I was hoping to talk to you about something but if you’re busy I can come by again later.”

Rona glanced at the clock. It was just a few minutes past her opening time and knowing this town, it was just a matter of time before people came in to offer their support just as Bull had. “How about tonight? Josie- the Mayor is throwing the fundraiser tonight and I’ve got Sera to help me so I’m sure I’ll have some spare time.”

“Alright,” Cullen said after a moment of thought. With a nod towards her, he added, “I’ll see you then. Have a nice day, Rona. And you as well… Bull.”

“I’ll be seeing you around!” Bull called out as Cullen left the store. Turning back to Rona, he leaned on the counter and lowered his voice to a mock-whisper. “I really like this bouquet. I love the pink.”

In the same mock-whisper, Rona leaned forward and said, “That’s why I picked it.”


	12. Charity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes it's the cold that nips at your cheeks, colors them. Sometimes it's not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know what else to say other than y'all will hate me.

No one could say that Josie couldn’t pull together any sort of gathering, whether it was a campaign, a party, or a fundraiser. The front steps of City Hall were roped off and the street in front of it was blocked off with street barricades. With the sun low behind the horizon of a winter evening, the only light came from the street lamps and candles that sat on the tables that held the decorated bags of potpourri. 

From behind the tables, Rona could pick out everyone in the crowd. Isabela and Merrill held each other’s hands and their own bags of potpourri. Even Bull and his new boyfriend – Dorian, if she remembered correctly – came together to support her through this fundraiser, despite the large bouquet purchased earlier in the day. At the top of the stairs stood Josephine at a podium, shuffling papers with Leliana standing by her side, watching the crowd intently with eyes of a raven. 

With everyone looking to their mayor, the sheriff making a beeline for the tables made him stick out like a sore thumb. Before he spoke, he pulled out a few folded bills from his pocket and handed them to her.

“Good evening, sheriff,” Rona said, unable to help the smile growing on her face. “Any particular flowers you’d like?”

“Have anything with roses?” he asked.

She fumbled through the many bags before she found one with roses. “This one is… roses, carnations, and cinnamon. Think that will freshen up your motel room?”

Cullen laughed lightly, quick to cover his mouth and smile with his hand. “I’m sure of it.”

“Have you started looking for a more permanent place?” Rona asked as she opened up the cash box, placed the few bills inside, and locked it back up before tucking the key in her pocket and handing him the bag. 

“I actually started looking the moment I accepted a job, but Haven doesn’t seem to have too many houses on the market. I’m almost tempted to just buy a small plot of land and build one at this point,” he sighed, his hands absently fiddling with the ribbon around the potpourri bag. 

“I understand that. If I had more than the few savings I had when I moved back here, I might’ve done the same. My place used to be a fixer upper and I’m just glad that I managed to get a lot of it fixed up before that snowstorm.” At her own mention of the snowstorm, Rona could feel her face heat up. 

He chuckled, looking slightly awkward as he reached up to rub the back of his neck. “So it looks like you’ve got a big turnout of support here. Did the re-opening go well?”

“It went really well, actually. At this point, this fundraiser seems a little unnecessary.” Rona sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. “But I’ve got a feeling that it’s point was always a little political.”

“Which isn’t unusual, but I get your frustration,” Cullen said. “Last place I lived, the politics were mixed up in everything there. It was… a mess.”

The way he spoke of his last home brought many questions to mind. However, something about the way he spoke told her to keep her mouth shut. Rona rounded the table so she stood at his side, leaning slightly against the table.

“No wonder we got you over here so quickly,” she said, hoping to make the conversation a little easier. “Think you’ll like it here? Long term, that is.”

Cullen didn’t respond right away, his eyes lingering on her for more than a moment. 

“I think I might,” he said, turning to face the crowd that hung on every word of Josephine’s speech. Rona could feel the warmth of his hand nudging against hers on the table, an unintended touch as Cullen leaned against the table as well. Though the cold bit at her cheeks, giving her more than a rosey complexion, she could feel her cheeks grow warm and red. 

“Who knows, you might get bored?” she offered, a smile on her lips as she looked up at him.

“You were robbed because your friend used your store as a drop point for apparently intimate details of City Hall by a man who never even met his employer,” Cullen summarized. Turning his body slightly to face her, he looked happy and content aside from the tired look in his eyes. “I’m fairly sure I won’t get bored here.”

“To be honest, this sort of thing doesn’t happen on a regular basis. Before this, the biggest news of Haven was when some kids TPed city hall on Halloween. The last sheriff spent the entire next day looking for the kids who did it and their parents made them clean it all up,” she said, ending it with a laugh and her hand partially covering her mouth. Josephine was still talking to an enraptured crowd, after all.

“How about we take a few steps back so we don’t bother the others?” he suggested, pocketing the potpourri with one hand and a sweeping gesture with the other to point the way. They rounded the corner of the block just enough to see the edge of the crowd but far enough not to bother anyone if either of them laughed or spoke louder than a soft tone.

“How are you holding up?” Cullen asked, catching Rona off guard.

“I… what?” 

“I… just don’t think I asked that recently. Between the break in, your ankle and the snow storm, and getting shop back up and running, any other person would be tired from one of those things. Or at a bar.” He leaned against the outer wall of City Hall and crossed his arms over his chest, a rather relaxed pose compared to the worry he wore on his face. 

Rona opened her mouth, feeling there like a slack jawed idiot for more than a few moments. She had no idea how to answer this kind of question without raising more questions. Not that telling him would be the worst thing in the world, but right now and with how long she had known him, this was not the time. 

“I told you I was a foster kid, right? I’m used to stress,” she fibbed. For another moment longer, the both of them just stood there watching each other with only the fog of their breath dancing in the streetlamps light. 

He ended up not responding to her lie and a knot swelled in her gut. Instead he stood up tall and reached out, placing a hand gently on her shoulder. He had to be about a whole foot taller than her, Rona noticed as she looked up into his hazel eyes. She felt painfully still, not knowing how or if she should move. Perhaps it was only a second that they stood there, frozen like the snow around them, or it could’ve been as long as it felt. Either way, all she knew for sure was the heavy thumping of her heart in her chest. 

“I…” Rona trailed off, the rest of her thought disappearing from the tip of her tongue. With the light of the streetlamp to her back and being this close to him, she could see every detail, from the bags under his eyes to the wisps of hairs out of place after a long day, so it didn’t go unnoticed when he leaned forward. It was minute but she caught it.

It was the crunching of the snow that broke them apart, Cullen nearly stumbling back into the wall and Rona almost slipping on a small patch of ice behind her. 

“Ronaly! There you are!” Sera harshly whispered as she ran up to them… and then ran past them. 

“Come with us!” Zevran said and waved his arm for the two to follow as he followed behind Sera.

Rona didn’t miss a beat, trying to follow them as best as she could be running through the snow. From the sound of footsteps behind her, it took Cullen a little longer to realize what happened. 

“Where are we going?” Rona asked as Sera and Zevran rounded the corner of City Hall. They stopped, skidding to a halt in the icy snow by a basement window. “Okay, _what_ are we doing?”

Even in the low light Rona could tell it had been opened and recently. The snow from around the window was wiped clean, like it would be if someone slid on the ground to get through feet first. 

“Whoever has those blueprints, they’re in City Hall right now,” Zevran explained. “We should be able to catch them if we hurry.”

Rona spared a quick glimpse towards Cullen, partially wondering if he’d even allow this as sheriff. What surprised her wasn’t that he didn’t object but rather the determined look he wore as he nodded. 

“Let’s do this,” Cullen said. 

And one by one they went through the window to the basement.


	13. After Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All things considered, sneaking into City Hall might not be such a great thing.

The room they slipped into was dark, the silence making each of their landings sound loud and obvious. As the last one through the window, Rona felt a hand on her waist guide her down. It took a moment or two for her eyes to adjust to the darkness, during which she heard Sera and Zevran shuffling and bumping into each other.

 _“Guys!”_ Rona hushed as she took a step forward, promptly burying her face in someone’s chest. And since she heard Sera and Zevran much more distant than a foot ahead of her, that left only one person. She could feel her face heating up to the tips of her ears as she stumbled back with a soft apology.

“No worries,” Cullen replied, his voice soft.

Rona slowly made her way closer to Zevran and Sera, pressing her cold hands against her neck and cheeks in an attempt to lessen the blush. She felt like she was on fire. Before her, the duo stood at the door, peeking out into the equally dark corridor.

“Where do you think he went?” Zevran whispered to Sera. 

“How the balls would I know?” she spat back at him a little too loudly, earning a jab in the side from Rona. “Fine, fine, I’ll hush it.”

“Do you even know what he’s here for? Is it a he?” Rona asked. At this point her eyes have adjusted well enough to make out the rough shapes of Sera and Zevran in the dark but not much else. They’re not going to have much luck finding even finding each other, much less anyone else.

“I guess it could’ve been a lady? Does it matter?” Sera asked. 

“As for what he or she is here for… we have little to no idea,” Zevran added.

“Fantastic,” said Cullen. He pulled out his cellphone, flooding the room with light. 

Rona reached out and covered it with her hand. “Whoever is here will see that a mile away.” Though it would give them some visibility, it might as well be a beacon he held in his hand. Reluctantly, he turned it off and tucked it back into his pocket. 

“We could split up and cover more ground,” Zevran suggested. 

“I’m not sure I’ve too fond of that idea,” Cullen said. “How about pairs? 

“I call Sera,” Zevran rushed to say and there was little to wonder why considering his only other choices were the sheriff or the woman whose store he almost drove into the ground. With no objections, the pairs split up. Sera and Zevran laid claim to searching the basement, leaving Rona and Cullen with the upstairs to investigate. They slowly crept up the stairs, careful to make little noise.

“Shouldn’t this place have some security?” Cullen asked, turning slightly on the stairs. With the little light the first floor had coming from the outside, she could only see the highlighted parts of his head and shoulders.

“Like I said, this place doesn’t usually see a lot of crime,” Rona said. “It’s why our sheriff and two deputies all left on short notice and not a whole lot of people really cared.”

“This is… very different from what I’m used to,” he said as he reached the final step and peeked out from around the wall. Catching up to him, she leaned far enough to see what he was looking at: the mayor’s office door open. Not entirely, but neither Josephine or Leliana would leave it like that.

Cullen took the lead as they sneaked along walls where the light didn’t touch. At the door, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a handgun, though Rona couldn’t help but to notice he left the safety on. Still crouching, he pressed his hand against the door to open it and a soft stream of light poured out. With the gun in his hand, he stretched out his arms and entered the room in a sweeping movement until he settled on the intruder.

“Freeze and put your hands up!” Cullen commanded. The intruder didn’t move an inch.

Following close behind him, Rona saw that the intruder had taken down one of Josephine’s paintings and stood in front of an open safe. He held papers in his hands, just a few but Rona had a feeling that even just a few pages of those documents might in fact ruin Josephine.

For only a moment, everyone stood in the mayor’s office completely still before the intruder bolted past the two of them, shoving Rona in the process and knocking her to the floor. Instead of immediately chasing after the man, Cullen took the time to help her back to her feet, which – sure – she appreciated and all but now the intruder was far ahead of them and heading down the halls to the back entrance.

“You follow him,” Rona said between breaths, “and I’ll see if I can cut him off.”

He nodded just as she veered off, running for the one place she could quickly and easily leave the building from: the window next to the stairs that never seemed able to latch just right. Not an easy way in, but a fantastic way out. She opened the window and hopped out into the snowy air. Without any time to waste, she ran for the back door. Just seconds away from the door, the intruder came out and took the time to properly close the door behind him to slow down his pursuer. 

With a burst of energy, Rona pushed herself to sprint after and tackle the man. They both fell to the ground with a nice, loud thump in the fresh snow. The papers from his hands scattered out to the frosty ground. Struggling to keep the thief held down, her eyes only caught a glimpse at what information the stolen papers carried before she was elbowed squarely in the face.

She fell on her back, grasping her nose where the blow hit. The intruder scrambled to pick up the documents and continued to run ahead as Rona struggled to get up. Using both of her hands to push herself upright, she spotted red stains in the snow. She held up a hand to her nose and pulling away she saw it covered in blood.

Fantastic.

She could hear the door behind her slam close as Cullen ran out of City Hall, but the slow of his footsteps worried her. 

“No, Cullen, get him!” she shouted, trying her best to point in the direction the man with the hand that propped her up. Her hand only lasted about two seconds before it was back on the ground to steady her. Cullen’s footsteps from slow to a total stop and she could see from the corner of her eyes that he stopped to kneel beside her. She could feel his hand on her back and the other under her chin to gently guide her face up where he could see the damage.

“We should get you to the hospital,” he said with great concern. “Does it hurt?”

“Cullen, catch him please, he can’t get away,” she pleaded. Her entire hand felt wet trying to stop or at least catch the blood flow, which probably didn’t help her case for him to leave her. “Josephine will…”

Rona trailed off, trying to hold her tongue. Cullen couldn’t know. The more people that knew, the worse this situation could become. She needed to get to Josephine. Turning so she could use Cullen to stand up, Rona began to head back to the fundraiser with a worried sheriff by her side.

The moment she stepped back into the crowd, all eyes were on her. If she weren’t so preoccupied, the entire situation might have been funny. No one else knew about the break in or the chase. Probably they had seen her walk off with Cullen out of their line of sight, only to now returning with a bloody nose. 

She marched straight to Josephine who looked as shocked and worried as Cullen had at the sight of her. The cold air burned her lungs and her nose was far too stuffed up, so she tried to keep things short.

“Someone knows,” Rona said. Dorian ran off to the curb and grabbed a handful of snow that hadn’t been walked on or disturbed. Returning, he offered it to her.

“You need to ice that,” he noted and she took the ice with a nod of thanks. 

Holding it to her nose hurt and she knew after a short while the snow would freeze her hand as well but it certainly was better than blood running down her face and onto her clothes.

Josephine stood perfectly still, reactionless except for the slight widening of her eyes at the news. Behind her, Leliana raised a brow at the entire scene before her. Eventually, Josephine dug into her purse and dug out her keys.

“Grab your things, I’ll take you to the hospital,” she said, voice even and steady. Rona knew she was anything but calm and rational right now even if she managed to keep her cool. “Just like old times, huh?”

“I suppose so.” Neither of them moved for a moment. Rona couldn’t tell what Josephine was thinking of, but all their time in the big city came right back to her as if it had been yesterday. “It’s time we talked.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for sticking with me! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I'm super excited since things are really finally starting to get going here with the plot. If you want to follow the occasional updates I post as I write, follow me at officialredjenny.tumblr.com and my updates are tagged under "thorns and roses blogging".


	14. Confronting the Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some stuff gets out in the open, but not everyone had been on the same page.

The hospital in Haven was small. Small enough it might have as well been a clinic by any other standard. It was white and had that odd stale chemical smell that all hospitals seemed to come with. Even the cot felt the same as the ones in (big city), which Rona supposed said more about the cot manufacture than the overuse of the same cots. With how quiet Haven usually was, the emergency room reflected it. Most in there were parents with a feverish newborn or a kid that did something stupid, like getting their tongue stuck to a lamppost. Coming in with a broken nose that was somewhat obviously not an accident was like the gossip of the year, if you didn’t count the recent robbery.

“I can’t figure out what possessed you to chase a thief into and out of a government building,” Josephine sighed, pacing a good three-foot radius with her hand tangled in her hair.

The front of Rona’s jacket had scattered drops of dried-slash-frozen blood from what spilled out from her hands both in Josephine’s car. Instead of using her hand, the nurse had given her a soft cloth to hold to her nose. 

“I was trying to help you,” Rona told her. It sounded less heroic saying it with her nose filled with blood, making her sound like she was talking while pinching her nose. “We might have had our disagreements but I wasn’t about to leave you to the wolves.”

“The others? Do they know?” Josephine asked. Rona didn’t think she had ever seen her looking so worried or frightful, at least not in a long time.

She shook her head in response, which turned out to be a bad idea, her nose throbbing when her rag holding hand didn’t keep up with the movement. 

“No. The sheriff was just trying to stop a robbery, and I think that Sera and the guy were just in it for the fun,” Rona said, being sure to leave Zevran’s name out of it. Even if the dude did break into her shop and almost put her over the edge in her finances, she knew the Crows were fierce to anyone who left them. She didn’t want to up the chances of him being exposed to anyone else.

“I just can’t imagine why anyone would actually break into City Hall, not unless someone else knew.”

“What I can’t believe was that you hung on to those letters,” Rona said, lowering her voice as she heard someone walk by. “What were you thinking?”

“It’s not a very good reason,” Josephine admitted, hanging her head as she leaned against the cot. “I just didn’t want to treat it like… like it never happened.”

“But this could ruin you. Everything you did to cover it up-“

“My _father_ covered it up before I even knew what happened,” Josephine said, voice wavering as she tried to keep her calm. “I know, I know, it doesn’t excuse it…”

Careful not to shake her head again, Rona wiped a bloody hand on the front of her pants before she wrapped her arm around the mayor.

“No, I get it,” Rona said with a sigh. “I just wish you had kept me around before it happened.”

Josephine stopped her pacing and looked to Rona. “Kept you around? Rona, you left me.”

“What? I- what?” Rona asked. She tried to go back and remember the string of events that happened earlier in their twenties and figure out what Josephine meant. “I remember quite clearly a text from you telling me to pack up my stuff and leave if I couldn’t handle your boyfriend.”

“A text?” Josephine looked like the cogs that had been turning in her mind as well suddenly clicked together. “Oh my word, I never sent you a text like that.”

“You… never sent it,” Rona repeated. The reality hit her right away and she hung her head forward. This was so… This was utterly ridiculous. All of this, all these years, and most of their distance as the result of a text. “He sent it.”

Rona took another moment to process it all. She had blamed Josephine for so many things, gotten so mad that she cut off all contact. There were so many ways that could’ve been resolved had she not been so angry. The weight of her choices weighed heavily on her shoulders, pulling down with a force she hadn’t felt in years.

“I’m so sorry,” Rona said as she looked back up at Josephine. “I can’t believe- and I’ve acted so rudely towards you. Josephine, I’m so sorry.”

Josephine took a seat on the hospital cot right next to her and wrapped an arm around Rona. “No, it’s partially my own fault. I hadn’t wanted to listen to what you said about him so that text must’ve felt reactionary. Rona, I always knew you had wanted to look out for me. I just didn’t want to believe it when you told me what kind of person he was.”

Rona swallowed, tasting blood in the back of her throat. She had tried to warn Josephine that her boyfriend wasn’t what he seemed. The result of the events after it all still felt like they could’ve been avoided had she stuck around; had she done anything else but run, had she taken some initiative to help her friend.

It was very possible that it was her own actions that set off a chain of reaction to the man’s death.

“The past is the past,” Rona decided. “Right now, Josie, I promise I’m going to help you.”

Josephine held a hand to her temple and sighed before she turned to face Rona with a smile. Not a posed one, the smile of a politician, but genuine; yet it also looked as if she had just watched a video of a dog riding a bike.

“Rona, I thank you, but all you have is a paralegal certificate and a flower shop. This is the sort of thing my father could deal with for you,” Josephine said, the smile flickering for a moment at the mention of her dad. 

“I had another job after I left,” Rona said, purposely attempting to keep it vague. The more detailed she got, the worse Josephine might feel about their falling out and that was the last thing Rona wanted to do to her. Especially now.

\---

With a clean bill of health from the doctor, Josephine dropped Rona back off at her car where they piled the remnants of the fundraiser into her trunk. A hug and a goodbye later, she drove off to the sheriff’s station. To her luck, she saw Cullen’s car parked out front and the lights were still on.

“Rona!” Cullen stood up quickly as she came through the front door, his legs bumping the office’s cheap desk in his haste. The air rushed past her as the door closed, knocking a few papers off his desk and making them land at Sera and Zevran’s feet. Sera and Zevran had what looked like a staring contest for a few moments until Zevran bent down and gathered them up.

“Nice nose,” Sera said. When Rona didn’t respond, Sera tapped at her own nose. “The bandage.”

Rona’s hand came up to touch her nose, just having stopped just shy away from actually touching it. The doctor had straightened it and put a bandage on it, so while they couldn’t see how swollen it was, it was definitely apparent what happened.

“Right. I broke my nose,” she said as she pulled off her scarf and jacket, draping them on a chair at an unused desk. It was probably for one of the deputies that left recently. 

“Uh yeah,” Sera said. She took a seat on top of Cullen’s desk, crinkling some of the papers. “Mr. Sheriff here already filled us in.”

“Really?” Cullen asked, waving his hand at where Sera sat. 

“So… what’s all this?” Rona asked. She leaned over Cullen’s desk to look at all the papers. They looked like memos, letters, some official documents… “Wait, did you take these from City Hall?”

“Theoretically,” Zevran answered. He circled the desk and leaned in close to whisper. “The dear sheriff has requested we not tell him where we got these. Duty to report. Plausible deniability. That sort of stuff.”

Rona nodded. Strange situation, but she got it.

“We were hoping to find something as to why someone would go through all this trouble to rob City Hall,” Sera explained. The glint in her eye told Rona it was far more likely she just saw the files and took them out of curiosity. 

“Find anything?” Rona asked as she sorted through the papers herself. Most of them were pretty mundane, nothing special about them: were minutes from town hall meetings, copies of correspondence, and some stuff about local laws. The only things that stuck out to her as unusual, or at least being different from the rest, were a few letters from two different companies requesting to buy some land. It didn’t _seem_ like the kind of thing that would be inherently suspicious but she recognized one of the company’s names: C. P. Laboratories. 

“This,” she decided, holding up the letter and showing it to the others. 

“This what?” Sera said, pinching her nose to imitate the way Rona sounded with her recently broken, swollen nose. When that didn’t get a response, she snatched the paper and held it up closely to her face before passing it along to Zevran who passed it along to Cullen.

“What connection do you see?” Cullen asked. With his brow raised, inquisitive not dubious, he looked like the sensed the story behind it.

“Just… that this doesn’t seem to fit in with the rest of the stuff here,” Rona said. “Plus, as mayor, Josephine has final say on this sort of stuff. It seems as good a motive as anything.”

“It’s a starting point, at the least. Rona and I could go to these companies on site and check them out and Sera and Zevran dig up some information on them,” Cullen decided, putting the paper back on his desk and stacking them all together. “Any problems?”

Rona pursed her lips and undid the action as soon as she realized it. 

“Fine,” she reluctantly agreed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahh! Super plot heavy chapter! Hope you guys liked it and, as always, I'd love to hear what you think about it.


	15. Don't Throw Stones

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The night in Rona's home still hasn't been resolved properly, leaving the long ride awkward. Rona doesn't do much to help it.

The drive to Denerim was both nerve wrecking and pleasant. A long, pleasant drive, Rona would be okay with. A long drive that happened to keep her on edge was not. It had nothing to do with the company she kept, Cullen who insisted on taking his truck, and more to do with their destination. Haven, though near the big city, wasn’t exactly a hop, skip, and a jump away either. The only blessing of the drive was the weather: slightly cloudy and not too cold. Not too bad for the end of November.

“So the glass company first?” Cullen asked. Rona held out an unfolded paper map of the area. Circled in red pen was the glass factory, and the laboratory was circled black.

“Where are we?” she asked, trying to find their spot on the map. “I mean, yeah. We’ll hit it sooner than the labs.”

It took a while before she got her answer, Cullen staring intently on the road ahead of them until they passed a mile marker. “Eighty-seven,” he answered.

Tracing the highway up with her finger, she found their location. “Hey, we’re almost there. Probably about ten minutes away if we keep this speed.”

“That’s good,” he said, his fingers tapping at the wheel. The ride, a little more than two hours long already, had mostly been filled with awkward silences, failed attempts at small talk, and fiddling with the radio. A radio show from Denerim played softly in the background, the music unfamiliar to her.

It’s not that Rona wanted the ride to be awkward or silent. They hadn’t really had a one on one talk since the snowstorm except for that brief moment by City Hall, but even that had been cut short. And apparently neither one of them really wanted to press for answers during the ride so everything started and ended with short statements. ‘At least the weather has cleared up’, ‘Your nose doing okay?’, ‘Gotten enough sleep?’

It made for a very, very long drive.

“I used to live in Denerim,” Rona confessed. Cullen had been nice enough to go along with this plan of theirs, despite its legality, and she felt he deserved some truth about her. Several times last night he warned them conducting an investigation this way wouldn’t go anywhere in court. Then again, Rona knew it should never reach a court for Josephine’s sake. “I roomed with Josephine while she was in college. I was in college too, but just a few classes at a time after I became a paralegal.”

“You were a paralegal?” he asked, actually taking his eyes off the road long enough to look at her. The confusion on his face was evident; why was she in Haven working as a florist?

“Yeah. Scholarships only went so far and Josephine’s dad was able to put in a good word for me at a firm and they trained me there,” she explained, keeping her eyes trained on the horizon. “I didn’t really like the job itself enough to try to apply to the local firm, Tethras and Hawke, and I had a bit of money so I started up the shop.”

“Was there a dire need for flowers?” Cullen asked, sounding half serious, half lighthearted. 

“In all honesty, the shop’s probably kept itself afloat partly because people don’t want to travel all the way out to the city to buy flowers for Valentine’s Day and felt it was worth it enough to just support my business for the rest of the year too,” she said. A smile found its way up to her face with Rona being able to relax just enough being on the topic of anything other than Denerim, their investigation, or the snowstorm.

“I guess I’ll just have to join them on that too,” he offered, again turning to look at her again to which she met his gaze. He wore a smile just like hers. 

“Please, buy flowers between the holidays. I get too much business during them and not enough in between,” she said. He gave a nod and returned to focusing on the road, which was probably in their best interest. She looked from the map and then back up at the road and directed him as needed to the glass factory. 

With the red brick walls and smoke stacks, the factory had a cute little rustic feel to it, though the gleaming glass roof gave it a modern edge. Cullen pulled into the parking lot and turned the engine off as the left, though not without a small warning to watch out for ice.

“Ready to come to my rescue again?” Rona teased. Cullen coughed into a fist and turned to walk towards the factory.

“Anyways,” he began. “Have any sort of plan?”

Rona pressed her lips together. She had some kind of idea of a plan, but nothing concrete enough to even worth mentioning. “I’m going to wing it.”

“I’m a sheriff, if my past actions have done anything at all to cause you to forget that. We can go in and see if they’ll let us in without a warrant,” Cullen suggested. 

“How about it’ll be our backup plan?” Rona offered in hopes they wouldn’t need to go that route at all. The last thing they wanted to do is alert anyone that they’re investigating them. It might only take seconds for someone to hide or bury any evidence.

He pushed open the door and held it long enough for Rona to go in first. She marveled at the inside of the factory, unsure of what else she should’ve been expecting of a place like this. The light streamed through the glass roof, lighting the glass creations in just the right way to make them sparkle. Lines and lines of the product being packed into snug crates. Though the actual furnaces were out of her view, she could spot the light creeping around the corner with a warmer hue than the sunlight shown with.

“Welcome!” A perky man with a clipboard stepped in front of them wearing the biggest smile Rona had ever seen. Could mouths even twist like that? “Are you here for the tour?”

“Yes!” Rona said and, in a split second decision, grabbed Cullen’s arm and hugged it against her side. “My fiancé and I absolutely had to come and visit when we heard you had a factory here. We’re big fans.”

She looked up at him, hoping he’d pick up the clue to add something to their cover but stood there with his mouth hanging slightly open. Okay, she probably shouldn’t have sprung that on him.

“We just purchased one of your stained glass doors. We really love it. It always gets so many compliments when we have people over,” Rona added, ending on a smile.

“Yeah,” Cullen finally said. Rona waited for something more but it never came. Thankfully, their greeter didn’t seem to mind.

“Oh miss,” the man said, his facial expression softening. “What happened?”

Rona’s hand flew up to her nose and, once again, stopping just shy of touching it at the last moment. Despite the lingering pain, she seemed to keep forgetting about it. Too much on her mind, she summed it up to being.

“Just a silly accident involving this goof and a two-by-four,” Rona said with an awkward laugh, Cullen playing along and looking bashful about it. “So where’s the tour?”

“Right this way!” the man said, his hands gesturing them in the direction of a small crowd. They looked much more touristy than they did. Their clothes looked more for going out than their plain outfits of jeans and jackets, meant for dealing with colder weather, did. Not that Denerim didn’t have its share of frosty temperatures, but Haven always seemed to get the snowstorms and whiteouts. 

Most of the people in the crowd were couples, some even having a couple of kids running around. Rona let go of Cullen’s arm and muttered out an apology under the noise of the crowd.

“It’s fine,” he said, but his face was flushed red. Next time, she’d definitely ask first. “Have a plan now?”

“Barely,” she answered. She took a step a little closer to him so that her chest barely touched his, just in case anyone might catch what she said. Her head tilted up as his tilted down and she held her hands behind her back, fidgeting with her fingers. “I’ll step away for a bit and see what I can find. Does that work for you?”

He nodded, and then a telling smile grew on his lips. “I can just tell them it’s the morning sickness.”

Rona was almost shocked at what he suggested seeing as how his face was flushed red just seconds ago. But his suggestion was a good one seeing as no one would question how long she might be gone if they thought she was cradling the toilet seat. She nodded as a response, the crowd behind them starting to move. Following, Rona stuck around only long enough so it didn’t look like she was trying to bail at the earliest possible moment. 

Slipping away and into a hallway they passed, she began her search. Thankful that the tour was around lunchtime, there was relatively less sneaking and hiding than she expected. From one office to the next, she tried to find one that looked important, like it belonged to someone who might. When she did, she found it was still occupied. 

“Excuse you?” a woman asked – thought it didn’t feel much like a question – looking up at Rona from her desk, covered in piles of papers for who only knew what kind of paperwork a glass factory needed to fill out.

“Hi,” Rona said, straight-faced. Composure was key. “I’m here on behalf of Mayor Montilyet.”

The woman – who Rona was assuming as in charge here, considering the degrees mounted on the walls and the plaques for various awards – straightened up in her seat and tugged on her jacket, probably in some effort to look a little more presentable. The disheveled hair, Rona recognized from experience was from falling asleep on a desk after an all-nighter, gave away that this woman clearly wasn’t expecting any company. Though it might be too early to make any assumptions, but she didn’t seem like the kind of person expecting to either receive or dispense blackmail.

“Of course,” she said, gesturing towards the seat in front of her. “Dear, what happened to your nose...?” 

Rona sighed. “Just an accident I got into last night with a robber,” she told her, looking for any kind of reaction. The only she saw was of shock. “Don’t worry, I’m fine.”

The woman let out a sigh of relief. “That’s good to hear. Now, how can I help you? Are you here about the deal?”

“In a way,” Rona fibbed, keeping a professional, pleasant smile on her face. “I was sent to interview you about what you could offer the town.”

“But I just had a meeting with Mayor Montilyet on this a few days ago,” the businesswoman pointed out. Well, at least there was clarification that this woman was someone important in the business.

“We just needed to clarify a few things. Your offer is going to bring jobs to town, not just bringing in your own people?” Rona asked. Though this wasn’t what she was really here for, might as well not bail out and look suspicious. 

The interview went on for barely five minutes when she got a call from Sera.

“Oh, this is my boss. Thank you for your time, I need to head back right away,” Rona said, standing up from her seat. The woman rose with her and reached out to shake her hand.

“I look forward to your town’s partnership,” she said. Something about the grip, the assured smile struck Rona as something familiar. It was a look, a way of walking, a way of acting one had when someone thought that things would just happen to go their way – something all too familiar at the law firm with those who thought or knew their innocence. This was not of someone who was planning blackmail. This woman probably didn’t even know there was another contender for the land yet. 

Any conjecture in her mind that this woman, or even this factory, were guilty disappeared from her mind. No glass factory was just looking to place an outlet in a town halfway between the big city and a smaller, though not too small, metropolitan area would stoop to blackmail. All Rona’s hopes that this would be an easy case to close vanished in a puff of smoke as her thoughts turned to C.P. Laboratories.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The alternative title to this chapter was going to be: GLASS HIM. Just because glass.
> 
> Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the new chapters! I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments so don't feel shy to write something, anything.


	16. A Strange Report

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rona apparently had a plan for infiltrating the pharmaceutical laboratory, but not the glass factory. Way to go Rona.

“What are you wearing?” Cullen asked as Rona left the gas station’s convenience store. He leaned against his truck as it continued to fill up with gas. C. P. Laboratories was on the other side of Denerim and between the distance, the traffic, the early dinner they had, and all the wrong turns they made, the early winter nights came with their usual chill. He had just zipped up his jacket and pulled a scarf around his neck; Rona, on the other hand, went a little further than that in preparation for the night ahead of them.

Not that she was unprepared or not used to winter, but there were plenty of reasons to change her entire outfit. They were heading to a pharmaceutical company whose hazardous reputation she was all too aware of. Rona had traded her jeans, jacket, scarf combo for a knee-length skirt, an oversized sweater, a pair of black leggings, and a different scarf. The only thing she kept were her cheap snow boots. 

“Sneaking into a _glass factory_ was easy but how the hell are we going to get into a pharmaceutical lab?” she asked as she circled the car to the passenger side and tossed her bag into the back.

“I don’t know, but I really don’t know how that outfit helps either,” he said, pushing away from the truck to put the nozzle back in its place when it clicked done. He stuffed the receipt in his pocket and climbed back into the driver’s seat. The keys were in and the was car started when she saw him watch her pulling on a hat and stuffing her hair up into it. 

Cullen just looked at her, looking unamused as he waited for an answer and Rona sighed. This conversation was probably unavoidable the moment she agreed to come with him. Rona looked at her reflection in the rearview mirror and probably agreed with the words Cullen left unspoken: she did look a little weird. She’d probably sum it up to “college art student trying too hard” mixed with a little “I picked my outfit from clothes off the floor”, the latter one being more applicable since she did really just pick up the articles of clothing from her floor when packing.

“I’m… not on the company’s good side,” she confessed, regretting the words right as they came out.

“You know them?” Cullen asked. “Why didn’t you say anything? Someone else could’ve come with me, or we could’ve let Sera and Zevran take care of it, or- wait.”

Rona held her breath at the last word, knowing already what the next question would be. Suddenly her cheeks felt hot, her muscles felt tense, and everything in her body told her to run. 

“How can you be on the company’s bad side?” 

A sharp honk behind them interrupted him. Seeing as Cullen hadn’t driven off, they were just parked right next to the gas pump whomever was behind them wanted to use. Cullen raised his hand with a wave and started the truck off in the direction of their destination.

“Rona, you haven’t answered me yet,” he pointed out. He sounded cross. She shouldn’t have said anything, but any other reason for the disguise would be a lie that’d lead to more lies.

“I signed a non-disclosure,” she lied. “I’m sorry. I just can’t tell you.”

Cullen’s fingers drummed against the steering wheel, and he wore a pensive look as he continued to drive. Finally, he sighed and said, “I take it you have a plan this time.”

Rona sunk back into the seat, the safety belt uncomfortably tucking itself between her neck and jaw. “You could say that.”

\---

“Who did you say you were again?” the receptionist asked as she thumbed her way through today’s schedule. She sat at a skillfully organized desk with everything in pristine order, matching the sharp and minimalistic design of the waiting room. 

“Arianne Rivers,” Rona said. By her side stood Cullen, his appearance only slightly different from half an hour ago. He wore a pair of glasses (that he owned apparently) and ditched his jacket to roll up the sleeves of his shirt. Much of the drive had been discussing Rona’s plan on getting in along with a slight detour on how far he was willing to go considering his job was to enforce the law, not break or bend it. Considering the circumstances and all that let up to this moment, he granted her in that this wasn’t a typical situation to be handled by traditional means. “I don’t normally bring my assistant along. He helped me with the drive up here. I am such a mess when it comes to long hauls, you know?”

“I don’t leave the city much,” the receptionist droned, her interest falling back to her computer screen, which mainly consisted of solitaire. “Your appointment was five minutes ago, but he should be ready to see you.”

“Thank you,” Rona said as she headed towards the door. With a rap of her knuckles on the wood door and a response to enter, she pushed open the door to see a man she wished she would never meet with again. She searched his face for a look of recognition but saw none. What luck. “Evening, Mr. Smith.”

“Smith is so common. Call me Peter,” he dismissed, waving his hand before using it to gesture towards the seating in front of his desk. “Take a seat, please.”

Rona took a seat but Cullen remained standing at the door.

“Long drive,” he explained, which seemed to make sense to Peter as he made no comment.

“So I’m here to talk about you and Haven,” Rona began. She reached into her bag and pulled out a notepad and pen, just for appearances. “I’ve heard you want to take up some land in our little city.”

Peter regarded her with some suspicion but the look vanished, replaced by a plastic smile.

“Well, yes, I suppose the cat’s out of the bag,” he admitted as he leaned back in his chair and straightened his tie. “We’re hoping to put a lab out there. A little bit for research, but mostly for distributing our products out towards the east of here. Haven is small enough that it’ll be cost effective to build and we’ll be bringing some jobs to your town. Not to mention a few of our people will be moving out there, if we get the go ahead to build our lab, and surely that will help the local businesses.”

“I’ll sure be able to sell a few more papers,” Rona joked with a laugh. Peter struggled to put out a small laugh, his forced smile betraying his clenched teeth. “What will happen if you can’t get the land to build? Surely one of the other outlying towns would be just as good.”

“Fractionally. Not nearly as well placed as Haven is. It’s about equal distance from Denerim as it is to Val Royeaux, not to mention if you take the northbound highway out of Haven, you’ll head straight to the docks. Really, a better location couldn’t exist,” he explained. He looked and sounded smug at his own brilliance for finding Haven. 

Rona scribbled a few notes down on the notepad just for appearance sake and continued on with the interview to hold her cover. She asked him a bit about himself; twice divorced, liked to do charity work, and was a dog person. He seemed much more relaxed talking about himself than about Haven, which wasn’t surprising in the least. Both she and Cullen said their goodbyes but he didn’t say another word until they were both back in his truck.

“I know I’m new to town, but is the Haven Journal an actual thing? It’s such a small community,” he said as he turned his keys in the ignition, warm air pouring in from the vents. Rona was a bit relieved not to be harassed with more questions, but now she figured his earlier silence might’ve been to not involve himself too much in the charade. 

“Yes, but it’s just run by Arianne. She can only churn out the press once or twice a month, but she’s a personal friend of mine and she’s let me use her name in the past,” Rona explained, trying to ignore the brow raise from Cullen. “It’s easier to have an established system in case anyone tried to fact check my story. Thankfully, the picture she has up on the Haven Journal website was back from when she tried her hand at being a brunette.”

“You sure know a lot about this kind of stuff,” Cullen insinuated, once more drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. “You might be good at police work… if you actually followed a proper procedure.”

Rona let out a nervous laugh. “No, I really prefer my job as a florist. Don’t you have anything you’re good at but you just don’t want to do for the rest of your life?” she asked as she pulled off her hat and let it drop onto her lap.

“Not exactly. I’ve wanted to be a cop since I was a kid, but…” he trailed off and stayed silent for a minute. “I suppose that might fit into that. I was good as a big city police officer. I was even offered the position of chief of police before I came here.”

“You turned that down?” Rona asked, honest to goodness surprised. “You seem like you’d be good at that.”

“Kirkwall wasn’t… It’s not a place I wanted to stay in,” he said, taking a hand off the wheel as he turned a corner to shade his eyes against the sun. “Regardless, I suppose I might know how you feel.”

Rona faced forward at the setting sun, an orange glow that peaked through the clouds and the snow, making the slick roads shine enough to blind her. She reached for the compartment and dug around enough to find and hand him a pair of sunglasses.

“Thank you,” he said, the air between them falling to silence. For the first time during this trip, the silence didn’t feel too bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all! I'm glad to get another chapter up since hopefully you'll talk to me about these dorks. This fic always makes it seem like Rona is a rogue in game, but she's not. She's a mage. Class A nerd. I can't wait for you to read the next chapter. I've got plans in store for these two B)


	17. Curtains Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bad weather isn't as bad as before, but it still pushes Rona and Cullen into a room together.

“Quick!” Cullen shouted through the wind as he opened the door of his car for her to get out. With one gloved hand on the door and the other holding his scarf and collar up to shield his neck from the wind. Rona slipped out of the car with her bag clutched tightly against her chest and was immediately hit with impact of the cold wind. Cullen held one side of his jacket open and pulled her in as they ran together from the end of the parking lot into the hotel lobby.

“Close the door!” the receptionist yelled, the winds pouring in nearly washing out her voice. Cullen had to push his back against the door with all his weight in order to close it, but now had his arms now wrapped around himself. Rona, having stayed her course going forward all the while, reached the receptionist’s counter. She pulled out her credit card and put it on the counter.

“Two rooms please,” she said. “Or a double bed room.” The parking lot was nearly full, leaving just one parking spot left in the back, so the run from the truck to here wasn’t too far but considerable enough that her teeth still chattered. The receptionist looked at her with a sorry look before turning to her computer screen. 

“We don’t have either, I’m sorry,” she said. Rona had a feeling the woman knew but looked anyways. “We just have a one-bed room left. You could try a hotel closer into the city? I think most of the people avoiding the storm picked the closest place they could find.”

Rona shook her head. What luck. From behind her, she heard Cullen walk up and dust off his hands of snow.

“I’m not feeling entirely confident about driving out in this kind of weather. You’re sure you don’t have anything else?” he asked. The receptionist pursed her lips and shook her head. He sighed and turned to Rona. “It’s your call. I could get a cot.”

“I’m afraid all of our cots are already being used as well,” the receptionist pointed out.

Rona’s first thoughts turned to the blizzard Haven had not too long ago and the night and… well, everything that happened in it. They hadn’t really discussed it or anything, and now they were basically in the same situation. Again. 

“I’ll take the couch,” she said, pushing her card towards the receptionist. 

Considering the fact that they hadn’t planned for this to be an overnight trip, neither of them had really packed for one, aside from Rona’s change of clothes for her disguise. Having taken that with her on the way in, they didn’t need to run back out to the truck. Unfortunately, the motel didn’t have indoor hallways to get to the rooms and their room, the only room left, was at the furthest end. Despite the awkwardness of the entire situation, Rona had no qualms running to the room the same way they had ran to the lobby, with her tucked against his side and shielded by his coat. 

With frozen fingers holding the key, she struggled to get it into the keyhole what with her hands shaking in the cold air. With his free hand, Cullen held hers and helped guide it steadily into the keyhole. In the hurry to get out of the cold weather they were ill dressed for, Rona tried to step inside as quickly as she could only to trip on the doorframe. Considering his arm previously around her and his hand holding hers, her trip pulled him down with her.

Probably for the best, he let go before he was flat on the ground with her. Or more accurately: _on_ her. Rona could hear the door behind her shut, the deafening winds coming to a sudden stop with the click of the lock. She rolled onto her back, too defeated by the weather to stand up. Cullen didn’t stop, and she watched as he went to the thermostat and raised the temperature before taking a seat on the bed.

“Are you alright?” he asked. He held his arms around himself, rubbing the sleeves of his jacket, probably to try and warm up. The incessant memory of the night at her house came to mind again and she was quick to push it from her thoughts, but the feeling of them huddled together on the couch was harder to shake away. Without sitting up she kicked off the cheap snow boots, the boots doing more harm than good at the moment having been thoroughly soaked, and instantly felt relief in her frozen toes. It was probably about time to get some new boots.

“Just mad at the weather,” she grumbled, turning her gaze from him to the ceiling. It looked splattered by something; of what, she hadn’t the faintest idea. “I didn’t expect we’d get freezing winds like this right after a blizzard.”

“I’m just grateful it isn’t another one of those,” he replied. Yeah, it was bad weather, but she had to agree with him: at least it wasn’t a blizzard. The snow from the blizzard was either still sitting on top of people’s lawns or turned to slush on the roads. Slush plus the drop in temperature would result in icy roads, and strong winds didn’t really go that well with it. But hey, not a blizzard.

“Speaking of that blizzard,” Rona said before she could stop herself. She pushed herself up to a sitting position on the floor and looked at him. “Are we… ever going to talk about it?”

She watched as his face blanked. He wasn’t expecting that. Fair, considering she wasn’t expecting those words to fall out of her mouth either. Part of her wanted to stand up, walk into the bathroom, and lock herself in there for the rest of the night, but that’d probably do more harm than good right now.

“What about… that night?” he tentatively asked, which strangely made Rona feel better about the entire thing. At least he seemed as nervous about it as she was. It was much better than thinking it meant little to him. That the action meant little. That huddling for warmth was something he didn’t pay any mind to. Because she paid a lot of mind to it. Probably too much, but there it was. Not that it meant anything _important_ to her. 

No, that line of thought was getting too confusing.

“Well,” Rona drawled out and then stopped, trying to consider her words carefully. “I mean, I’m very grateful that you were willing to help me so much, but I just hoped that… You know, that…”

This was a mess.

“That,” Cullen repeated, slowly nodding his head once. Then he looked as if a lightbulb has lit up over his head, his eyes wide and mouth slightly parted. “Oh. _That._ ”

“That,” she confirmed.

“Well, obviously, that was for, you know, survival,” he said. 

“No, yeah, obviously.”

“Obviously.”

For a while, who knew really how long, she just stared at him. He happened to be staring back. There was staring to be had. Obviously.

“Fantastic-glad-that’s-settled,” she strung together and picked herself up and went straight to the bathroom, locking the door behind her. Yup. She probably should’ve just started with this course of action.

Rona lowered the toilet seat lid and sat on it, pulling off her hat and running her hands through her hair before she messed it all up in a release of frustration. She sat there in silence with her head in her hands until her phone chimed in her bag. She pulled it out, surprised not by the fact Sera had texted her but rather that it was her twenty-second text to her. 

The beginning few texts were from earlier in the day, mostly Sera complaining about Zevran. Those after were updates with nothing too surprising to Rona: that the glass factory was a relatively simple and straightforward company and that C.P. Laboratories had numerous lawsuits filed against them but only slightly more when compared to other pharmaceutical labs. The last of the texts seemed disorderly, like they were written by someone drunk. Considering it was Sera, it wasn’t a far out possibility. But the last text sent said someone just called to place a large order on flowers. A party or something, apparently. 

Rona let herself take a few more moments to collect herself before she stood up and started getting changed. Off went the soaked snow shoes, skirt, and scarf. Thankfully, the leggings could be worn on their own so she wouldn’t have to sleep in her jeans. Just for the sake of staying warm, she threw on her shirt from earlier that day under her sweater. After a quick wash of her face, she left the bathroom and tossed her bag at the foot of the couch. 

Cullen had, apparently, pulled off the top cover of the bed and placed it on the couch for her sake while leaving the blanket on the bed. Minus his taking off his shoes, he seemed to have immediately laid down on the bed quickly after she left, his fingers at his temple like he was trying to get rid of a headache. Though not without some reserve, she walked over to the bed and took a seat on it next to him.

“Are you feeling alright?” she asked. 

“I’m fine,” he said dismissively. He peaked one eye open to see her the best ‘I’m not convinced’ face. “It’s a headache, nothing bad. You know, it’s just the end of the day, we’ve done a lot…”

She nodded. “Yeah, I can get that. Have you been getting them headaches often? I might have something in my bag, if you’d like.”

“No – wait – not usually, but I have lately. I’m pretty sure it’s… well,” Cullen opened both eyes to look at her and the hesitancy he carried on his face looked like the kind she had been wearing all week. “I take meds for fibromyalgia and I’m pretty sure it’s just a symptom of what I’ve been taking. But thanks for the offer.”

Rona smiled as she looked down at Cullen, the previous nervousness gone, but it didn’t last for long. A second ago felt like the world went still and she could enjoy just being, but now all she could remember were the lies she told him, one right after the other. 

Rona closed her eyes. “I haven’t been truthful with you.”

“What?” he asked, his brows drawing down at her confession. “Is it something I should be worried about?”

“What?” she asked on reflex and then shook her head. “No, it’s not something about you or done to you, if that’s what you’re worried about, but I… didn’t leave Denerim because I wanted to come home to Haven and start up a struggling flower business. I’ve been debating telling you or not and I just… I didn’t think it’d be fair to keep lying. You’ve done so much to help me.”

Cullen pushed himself up on the bed until his back was resting against the headboard and crossed his arms over his chest. He looked curious but more confused than anything else.

“Long story short, I used to be a private investigator. A family hired me to find evidence on wrongful death, someone who was in the human testing of some drug trials. I thought I’d just find some mistake the company was trying to cover up, or, alternatively, nothing at all. What I found, the company didn’t want anyone to know.”

“And that company was C.P. Laboratory,” Cullen finished. It wasn’t that hard to draw that conclusion based on that day’s events. “So when I asked why you were good at investigating, you had those skills from being a P.I.?”

“Sort of? I’m just good with details. I even used to work for Josephine’s father as a paralegal for that reason. I ended up in a private investigation firm on someone’s recommendation after Josie and I had our fight and I had to leave, but I eventually went freelance with it,” she explained. Her fingers twined around each other, the nervous fidgeting keeping her mind off the gigantic knot in her stomach.

“But wait, what was the lab doing?” he asked. His voice seemed a little stronger than it was a second ago, like he was moving past the point where he cared that she lied. At least she hoped.

“Oh, Cullen, they were doing so much shit: embezzling, shipping faulty drugs, not disclosing certain side effects in order to past them on to market. I wouldn’t be surprised if I wasn’t the first one who found out about it and tried to do something.” She ran her hand through her hair and shifted her position on the bed so she was sitting next to him, shoulder to shoulder and looking towards him. “But I guess they figured I was investigating them and next thing I knew, my office was broken into, and everything I had was stolen.”

“You did take this to the police, right?” he asked, but it felt more like he wanted her to have gone to the police rather than genuinely wondering what she did next. 

“I reported the theft, but you have to understand I had no evidence I even had evidence,” she said, trying very hard not to let herself get carried away in the conversation. Stay calm, she told herself. “They took my laptop, they took my desk, every file from my cabinets, my camera, everything.”

Cullen rested his thumb on his chin, his forefinger on his lips. “What happened next?” he resigned himself to ask.

“I confronted them. Stupid, but I had almost nothing else to lose… and then they reminded me I still had my freedom so long as I kept my mouth shut and left the city.”

“Why did you risk coming with me, then? If they had seen you…” Cullen didn’t seem to be able to finish the thought. 

She shrugged. “I was hoping it wasn’t them. I just needed to know if either them had a motive and… looks like the lab takes the cake.”

“Rona, if we could get our hands on some evidence- _legal_ evidence, we could take them. With the way you’re going about this, we can’t use this to put them through the system,” he insisted. “You’d help Josephine and yourself, not to mention countless others.”

Rona jumped up off the bed and began to pace. No, this was too much. This was wrong. The moment they get home to Haven she should pack everything and leave; just get the hell out of here. Getting caught up in this now was completely against reason.

“I can’t!” she yelled, her emotions coming to a boiling point. “ _I can’t challenge the system._ I got hired to find information on that company because the family who lost their daughter in drug trial had hit every dead end without any sustainable evidence of their own.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-“

“You honestly think the system would protect me if they decided to bury me under an army of lawyers? Cullen, I lived in the system and they do not give a flying fuck about me. If- if I even help you, if you took the front of this, they’d find out and then I’d be done for,” Rona implored. In the back of her mind, she knew his answer. Letting her and Sera handle things or running after a bad guy into a closed City Hall was completely different than – what? – trying to take down or at least stop a business outside of the system. “Is that something you could even comprehend?”

She held her hands up for a moment, trying to summon the energy to continue her thoughts, but they were jumbled up like tangled yarn and she just couldn’t sort through them. One hand dropped to her side and the other rested at her temple.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. He didn’t respond. Of course he wouldn’t. She shouldn’t have gone off like that. “I didn’t mean- I’m… I’m wiped. I’m going to get some rest.”

When she moved to make for the couch, she felt his hand hold her wrist.

“Wait,” he said. Outbursts like that weren’t something new to her, but the embarrassment after them still wasn’t something she was used to. Facing him in that moment, the courage to actually face him took a lot of strength, but when she saw him she saw the same embarrassment mirrored on his face. “I should’ve known. Forgive me.”

Words failed her. A reply, a word, even a single sound couldn’t make it to her mouth. Her mouth hung open in surprise and it felt like she didn’t even have the power to close it until he finally let go of her wrist. He kept his gaze on her, his eyes searching her for a reaction.

And it was a kiss placed on his lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to apologize for the delay! College is swamping me and I struggled with finishing this chapter big time. Hope that everyone enjoyed it and, please, I would really enjoy comments! It's what motivates me to write more when maybe I have to wrestle with my muse for some ideas. Want to follow for updates or send me some asks about the fic? Follow me at officialredjenny @ tumblr!


	18. Interlude

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Throw back to the start of this fic. Thanks for sticking with me!

It was hard for Rona to tear her eyes away from her friend on the altar in order to enjoy her own work: the masses of flowers that filled the venue. Rona held Ori’s wedding bouquet, a primarily white anemone flower arrangement. The anemone was fitting, though hard to come across as well as expensive. The meaning was supposed to be love after death, though the interpretations varied. Looking out, the hall was filled with a mix of white Eucharist lilies and anemones. Ori really hadn’t spared any expense on the flowers, probably due to her full well knowing the status of Rona’s business.

Standing by as Ori’s maid of honor, Rona watched as her friend and fiancé traded wedding vows so that they stood before everyone as husband and wife. Fenris dipped her in their kiss, and Rona watched as Ori melted in his arms. The newly married couple then left the altar, hand in hand as they walked down the aisle to make it to the reception hall. Then the maids and men left, and then the people in the views. Rona briefly caught Mayor Monilyet’s gaze and quickly looked away, keeping her eyes trained forward. 

More of her work, her flowers, were at play in the reception hall, the similar arrangements sitting in the middle of the dinner tables. The bridesmaids and men sat at one table together while the groomsmen and women sat at their own, leaving the two groups some of the few not to feel awkward by sitting with near strangers.

“Wonderful work,” Arianne whispered to Rona, though it was hardly necessary. The blonde sat next to her and the clatter of the room would’ve drowned out much else that wasn’t said right next to her ear. “Doing well?”

Rona took in a deep breath and nodded her head. Once more, she spotted the Mayor across the crowd though the woman didn’t notice her this time. 

“I’m alright,” she assured her friend, reaching over and gently touching the woman’s shoulder. “How’s work?”

“Journalism?” Arianne laughed. “About as well as a flower shop in a small town.”

Rona playfully punched Arianne’s arm, and the woman returned the gesture. The both of them laughed despite their situations. “Hey, I’m getting by.”

“Barely,” Arianne added, coating the truth with a teasing tone. Rona couldn’t disagree. Times were tough, but keeping her store going was a worthy enough goal considering it was a fairly risk free occupation as well as something she enjoyed. Apparently, that was hard to find these days.

“Hey, my offer still stands whenever you need me,” Rona offered. The journalist might be good, but when it came to sniffing out information, Rona felt she was fairly good with that.

“Nice, nice. And our usual arrangement stands, you know,” Arianne said with a wink. 

The groom’s Best Man - well, woman - interrupted their conversation by taking the microphone, filling the room with a very muffled, “Test, test, test?”

Fenris’s Best Man was, in retrospect, an obvious choice, but Rona couldn’t help but smile and wonder at the results of that choice. Marian Hawke held the mic in one hand and a glass of champagne in the other. Looking over at her vacated seat at the groomsmen’s table, it looked like it was not her first one. How she managed to down that much already was astounding. 

Rona took a sip of her own champagne and decided it wasn’t that astounding to have gone through a few glasses quickly.

“I’ve gotta say, I really didn’t picture Fenris finding someone, especially not someone as nice as Ori. Like? Wow. Fenris, you got super lucky.” Marian’s speech continued in the same kind of format, going on to describe how Ori and Fenris’s first date and all the mistakes that happened within, how Fenris should go pick up a hobby now that he has the time and money from his new wife, and also that she demanded free checkups for her own dog – a large dog that could be spotted under the groomsmen’s table. 

Fenris gave Marian the middle finger.

“Ori, you’ve been both a sister and a friend to me for as long as I can remember,” Rona began after Marian had passed her the mic. “You’ve supported me more than I could’ve ever hoped anyone to. We’re sisters, not by blood, but by the foster system, circumstance, and luck. Every day, I count myself lucky that we found each other and that I’m here, able to support you like you’ve supported me. 

“To Fenris, thank you. I can’t ask you to take care of her or to look out for her as I know she’s fully capable to handle anything that life throws at her on her own. Instead, I want to ask you to continue to love her and cherish her the way you already have. She deserves more than I can give her as a sister so here I am, turning to you to help me. You two will have wonderful adventures and journeys with each other, and I wish you both the best in all that is to come.”

Rona had split her attention between the crowd and the newlyweds, so when she finally turned back to Ori and found her crying, Rona couldn’t help but join her. She tugged at her own eyes, smudging her makeup to wipe away the tears.

“I love you, Ori.”

“I love you, Rona,” Ori cried.

\---

The wedding itself was later into the evening, and it didn’t help that the area they lived in was further north, the night falling much faster. Rona did her duties as the maid of honor but eventually called in early, going into one of the changing rooms to get out of her formal dress and into her usual work clothes. Well, casual clothes. Perks of being her own boss meant the dress code was a little looser, but considering that she had come from work right before the wedding, that’s how she saw the jeans, boots, and button up shirt. 

“Leaving so soon?” Josephine asked. The Mayor stood outside the changing room door, catching Rona as she left it. 

Rona didn’t respond but held the woman’s gaze. Josephine sighed.

“Your toast earlier was beautiful. The flowers, too. I’m assuming they were yours.” When Rona continued not to respond, she continued, “I just wanted to say that I hope you’re doing well.”

“I really need to do some work before I go home, so if you’ll excuse me,” Rona said. Josephine nodded and stepped aside so Rona could get her winter coat from the coat closet and braved the weather to head on out to her car.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't even begin to apologize for not updating this sooner. I'm super duper stuck on the next (actual) chapter, but a friend recommended I do a sort of "filler chapter" to help me get back into writing for this. I hope you enjoyed it!


	19. Not Quite an Ending

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rona finally starts to realize that she is no longer alone.

“What do you mean nothing happened?” Sera asked, somehow sounding more bored than anything else. She leaned against the counter at the flower shop and fiddled with a pair of stem scissors. 

“That… nothing happened?” Rona ran a hand through her own hair and let out a long sigh. “I mean- I’ve told you that… _that kind of thing_ isn’t me. I’ve probably slept with one other person. Period.”

Sera laughed - nose scrunched up and all - at the word “period.” 

“You’re a child,” Rona huffed. She began to busy herself, taking back the stem scissors to shorten the length of some of the flowers to put together another flower arrangement. Josephine was putting together some kind of event together at City Hall, the specifics long lost on Rona who was somehow more involved in her personal affairs for once.

“You’re the one acting like a teenaged girl. Ronaly, your cheeks are _so_ red at the mention of the new sheriff in town.” Sera made finger guns, pretended to shoot them, and then blew them out. “This town isn’t big enough for the both of you.”

She had that right, at least. The last couple days, Rona had tried her best to avoid contact with him at all costs. Even telling Sera what happened required a lot of prying before Rona even talked about it. What once felt like just the right size, now Haven felt too small. It felt like he was everywhere. 

After the kiss, she had tried to explain she wasn’t interested – not yet – in taking it any further. He seemed a little confused at the time but accepted it in stride, letting her just sleep with him in the bed. The drive home after that felt awkward for her, though she wasn’t sure about he felt. Most of it was spent with the radio on too loud, and the meetup with Sera and Zevran gave them just enough stuff to do so they could briefly ignore each other.

Sera and Zevran’s investigation with the books revealed about the same amount of information as Rona and Cullen’s trip to the city, though with a little bonus. With his unique background, Zevran had explained that Haven was a pretty good set up for the company, a cheap and affordable space with good access to the main roads to get its product out to other cities, like Kirkwall. It would be a key part to growing their profits, why they might be so intent on getting that land. What to do about all of the information they accumulated, however, was a whole other story. 

“You’re just gonna keep avoiding him or something?” Sera asked.

“That’s my plan so far.”

“Not a good one.”

“I don’t have any good plans,” Rona snapped. She set down the stem scissors and trimmed flowers on the counter. “Nothing… ever goes according to my plans. I make everything worse.”

She glanced up at Sera, who looked less entertained as before and now more concerned. 

“Hey, sorry about the teasing. Are you alright?” she asked. Rona couldn’t tell her the specifics, about her past as a private investigator that ended in failure, how she ran from the problem to end up at home dealing with the same situation all over again. Momentarily, she considered leaving again. Pack up, put together a new life. She had done it before. It wouldn’t be too hard to just pretend that this problem didn’t exist and to continue on with her life and be a little selfish.

“Yeah, I’m alright. Just… overwhelmed. Don’t worry,” Rona assured her friend. She picked up her tools again and continued to work, finding solace in the repetition of her job. Time passed quickly as she clipped and arranged; the big winter party the town put on was coming up soon and had ordered several wreaths and arrangements for decorations. It was still a few days out so time wasn’t an issue, but it helped to take her mind off everything for just a bit.

“-Hello?” 

Rona jumped, her arm twitching and sending her scissors out of her hand where they fell and clattered on the floor. Looking up, she expected to see Cullen in the door way ready to ask her about their night in the hotel room. Instead, she saw Zevran. Rona looked around, unable to find Sera.

“Uh, I think Sera’s out if you’re looking for her,” she said. He shook his head.

“I’ve got some news for you. Your ears only, if you could grant me that,” he told her. She took a moment to respond but nodded and gestured for him to follow her back into her office. She kicked the sleeping bag next to her desk into the corner and excused her mess. 

“You take your work with flowers pretty seriously, hm?” he mused with a light laugh. 

“Running a business on your own takes a lot of work.” She sighed. “And a lot of time.”

“So you would probably appreciate a little help with our mutual problem? I might have an idea that _might_ work, but it would require a little time and a bit of trust. Is that something you’d be able to work with?” Zevran asked. 

Rona took a seat in her office chair – a cheap thing poorly assembled by herself, the thing couldn’t swivel right – and eyed him up and down. He had stolen from her and put her at a high financial risk, but he had stuck around to help afterwards. Sure, she threatened him a bit, but he seemed more than willing to help recently. Sera really seemed to enjoy his company, which wasn’t something that happened too often. Most people didn’t stick around long enough to see the part of her that makes her a great friend.

“I’m okay with that,” she decided, unable to keep a sigh from ending the sentence. “What’s your plan?”

As an answer, he winked and started to back out of the office. 

“That’s not an answer!” she yelled, getting back up from her chair.

He gave her a pair of finger guns and said, “I need to borrow Sera. We’ll tell you everything soon.”

Rushing to the door of her office, she asked, “Wait, does Sera know what you’re doing?”

That, he didn’t answer. He left her shop through the front door without giving her any real answers, but he left with a sly grin. She could only hope it was a grin that meant he knew it would help her. Them. Josephine. 

_Josephine._ She was who they were all trying to help, for one reason or another. It was a big difference from what she dealt with back in the city, working on her own. Somehow, she ended up in a team, and maybe that meant she didn’t have to make all the plans herself.

\---

She arrived at the sheriff’s office with winter flowers in hand. Despite the thick blankets of snow, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky as the sun set, casting red and purple hues as it dipped past the horizon. Opening the door met her with a warm blast of air and the now all too familiar bell of the office’s door. At his desk, Cullen looked up from his paperwork and instantly put his nose back down into it, not saying a word.

Rona’s mouth hung open, words lost on her tongue. On the way over, she practiced what she’d say over and over again, but all of that work fell short when he didn’t say a word. Silence permeated the room, and she knew it was her fault. Giving him the cold shoulder, practically avoiding him… and she had no good way to explain it. 

So she blurted out, “I’m asexual.”

That got his attention. His head snapped up, and she watched as his face showed the brief struggle to understand what she just said.

“A what?”

Rona bit her lip. _Run!_ her brain screamed at her. She still stood at the open door, the cold outdoor air at her back and the warm office air heating her face; she could make a run for it without it feeling too awkward. In a thoughtless, decisive move, she took another step in and let the door close behind her.

“I’m asexual. Well, on the spectrum of asexual. I don’t normally tell people since it’s kind of a personal thing but also people suggested I should see a doctor or give someone a try.” She paused, realizing what could be implied through her words. “Not that I thought you would act that way, but I just sort of… stopped telling people.”

 _And I didn’t know I’d like you as much as I would,_ she kept to herself.

She watched as he rose from his seat, hands on his desk. He didn’t look confused, not the kind of confused she recognized of people trying to figure out how someone could be asexual, but his face twisted in a way like he was working on a puzzle and the last pieces were finally coming together.

“So back at the hotel?” Cullen asked, taking a step around his desk.

“Yup.” She felt all her blood rushing to her cheeks.

“How… how long?” He was five steps away.

“I mean, for my whole life-“ Four steps away.

“No.” Three steps. “How long have you liked me?”

“I… it kind of happened gradually.” Two steps. Now, actually feeling like a school girl as Sera described, she asked, “How long have you liked me?”

One step. He stopped right in front of her. Had she been taller – or had he been shorter – they might’ve been face to face with only inches between their faces. With such a small distance between them, she could see at the corner of his smile twitched up, breaking the loneliness on his face. 

“Strangely enough, after you confessed to lying to me the first time we were trapped in together by a storm,” he told her. A small laugh escaped the both of them, hardly helping the mood. “I might not have enjoyed being lied to, but you showed strength and resolve. Something in you shined, and it never wavered as you kept going.”

She dropped her flowers to grab at the edges of his coat to pull him in so that her forehead rested against his chest. It started slowly with tears welling up in her eyes, falling down her cheeks, and staining his shirt, but they soon became actual sobs that broke her body. He only held her, and that was okay.

By the time Rona stopped crying, her head was fuzzy and her eyes were red. She knew she must have looked a mess, but as she pulled away, Cullen leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her forehead before pulling her back in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow I finally updated this huh? If you're still reading, I hope you enjoyed. I know it's not an 'ending' (and it hopefully won't be the ending), but I did want to give you guys something in case it doesn't get finished. I've been getting extra super duper busy. I've had work with my college in the field I'm trying to get in and now I'm transferring and am going to be taking a ton of credits plus hopefully still working. I think, at the most, there's about two chapters of this left. For now, I leave you with this. <3


End file.
